Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Table of Contents - 2010 - Volume 33, Issue 04  

Open Peer Commentary

Neural reuse and cognitive homology

Vincent Bergerona1

a1 Department of Philosophy, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada. vincent.bergeron@uottawa.ca

Abstract

Neural reuse theories suggest that, in the course of evolution, a brain structure may acquire or lose a number of cognitive uses while maintaining its cognitive workings (or low-level operations) fixed. This, in turn, suggests that homologous structures may have very different cognitive uses, while sharing the same workings. And this, essentially, is homology thinking applied to brain function.

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