Abstract
Although there is a substantial philosophical literature on dynamical systems theory in the cognitive sciences, the same is not the case for neuroscience. This paper attempts to motivate increased discussion via a set of overlapping issues. The first aim is primarily historical and is to demonstrate that dynamical systems theory is currently experiencing a renaissance in neuroscience. Although dynamical concepts and methods are becoming increasingly popular in contemporary neuroscience, the general approach should not be viewed as something entirely new to neuroscience. Instead, it is more appropriate to view the current developments as making central again approaches that facilitated some of neuroscience’s most significant early achievements, namely, the Hodgkin–Huxley and FitzHugh–Nagumo models. The second aim is primarily critical and defends a version of the “dynamical hypothesis” in neuroscience. Whereas the original version centered on defending a noncomputational and nonrepresentational account of cognition, the version I have in mind is broader and includes both cognition and the neural systems that realize it as well. In view of that, I discuss research on motor control as a paradigmatic example demonstrating that the concepts and methods of dynamical systems theory are increasingly and successfully being applied to neural systems in contemporary neuroscience. More significantly, such applications are motivating a stronger metaphysical claim, that is, understanding neural systems as being dynamical systems, which includes not requiring appeal to representations to explain or understand those phenomena. Taken together, the historical claim and the critical claim demonstrate that the dynamical hypothesis is undergoing a renaissance in contemporary neuroscience.
Highlights
Throughout the mid-twentieth century, many areas of psychology underwent a “cognitive revolution” (Bechtel and Graham 1999; Thagard 2005)
In the section that follows, I focus on the second aim, and present representational and dynamical systems explanations of motor control in order to demonstrate how the dynamical renaissance is motivating a reexamination of the necessity of appealing to “representations” in explanations of neural phenomena
Dynamical systems theory is becoming increasingly popular in contemporary neuroscience
Summary
Throughout the mid-twentieth century, many areas of psychology underwent a “cognitive revolution” (Bechtel and Graham 1999; Thagard 2005) This revolution drove an information-processing perspective of mind (Stillings et al 1995), namely, mental activity like decision-making and problem solving, as well as goal-directed behavior. I discuss research on motor control as a paradigmatic example that demonstrates that the concepts and methods of dynamical systems theory are increasingly and successfully being applied to a wide range of neural systems in neuroscience Such applications are motivating a stronger metaphysical claim, that is, understanding neural systems as being dynamical systems, which includes not requiring appeal to representations to explain or understand those phenomena. In the section that follows, I focus on the second aim, and present representational and dynamical systems explanations of motor control in order to demonstrate how the dynamical renaissance is motivating a reexamination of the necessity of appealing to “representations” in explanations of neural phenomena
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