Conciliating neuroscience and phenomenology via category theory.
Andrée C Ehresmann, Jaime Gomez-Ramirez
Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology December 2015 DOI: 10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2015.07.004 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Category Multi-scale self-organized systems Neuro-cognitive system |
| Key points | Argues that a category-theoretic framework (MENS) can model neural and mental processes jointly, with mental objects generated through colimit-based binding of distributed synchronous neuron assemblies. Proposes that degeneracy of the neural code enables mental objects and cognitive processes of increasing complexity with multiple neuronal realizabilities, and that this formal approach yields precise notions of compositionality, productivity, and systematicity. |
Abstract
The paper discusses how neural and mental processes correlate for developing cognitive abilities like memory or spatial representation and allowing the emergence of higher cognitive processes up to embodied cognition, consciousness and creativity. It is done via the presentation of MENS (for Memory Evolutive Neural System), a mathematical methodology, based on category theory, which encompasses the neural and mental systems and analyzes their dynamics in the process of 'becoming'. Using the categorical notion of a colimit, it describes the generation of mental objects through the iterative binding of distributed synchronous assemblies of neurons, and presents a new rationale of spatial representation in the hippocampus (Gómez-Ramirez and Sanz, 2011). An important result is that the degeneracy of the neural code (Edelman, 1989) is the property allowing for the formation of mental objects and cognitive processes of increasing complexity order, with multiple neuronal realizabilities; it is essential "to explain certain empirical phenomena like productivity and systematicity of thought and thinking (Aydede 2010)". Rather than restricting the discourse to linguistics or philosophy of mind, the formal methods used in MENS lead to precise notions of Compositionality, Productivity and Systematicity, which overcome the dichotomic debate of classicism vs. connectionism and their multiple facets. It also allows developing the naturalized phenomenology approach asked for by Varela (1996) which "seeks articulations by mutual constraints between phenomena present in experience and the correlative field of phenomena established by the cognitive sciences", while avoiding their pitfalls.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on philosophy of mind, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Psychosis as a state of aberrant salience: a framework linking biology, phenomenology, and pharmacology in schizophrenia. | 2003 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From dopamine to salience to psychosis--linking biology, pharmacology and phenomenology of psychosis. | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How do the brain's time and space mediate consciousness and its different dimensions? Temporo-spatial theory of consciousness (TTC). | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The phenomenology of deep brain stimulation-induced changes in OCD: an enactive affordance-based model. | 2013 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Looking for the Self: Phenomenology, Neurophysiology and Philosophical Significance of Drug-induced Ego Dissolution | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cited by 6
- Explanatory profiles of models of consciousness - towards a systematic classification. Neuroscience of Consciousness August 27, 2021
- A relational approach to consciousness: categories of level and contents of consciousness Neuroscience of Consciousness October 1, 2021
- Mathematics and the Brain: A Category Theoretical Approach to Go Beyond the Neural Correlates of Consciousness Entropy December 1, 2019
- Using category theory to assess the relationship between consciousness and integrated information theory. Neurosciences research June 1, 2016
- Yet another time about time … Part I: An essay on the phenomenology of physical time. Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology December 2015
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