A clash of Umwelts: Anthropomorphism in behavioral neuroscience

Brains enjoy a bodily life. Therefore animals are subjects with a point of view. Yet, coding betrays an anthropomorphic bias: we can, therefore they must. Here I propose a reformulation of Brette's question that emphasizes organismic perception, cautioning for misinterpretations based on extern...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Behavioral and brain sciences Vol. 42; p. e229
Main Author Gomez-Marin, Alex
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York, USA Cambridge University Press 28.11.2019
Subjects
Animal behavior
Animals
Biology
Brain
Computational neuroscience
Laboratory animals
Metaphor
Nervous system
Neural coding
Neurosciences
Objectivity
Open Peer Commentary
Physics
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Summary:Brains enjoy a bodily life. Therefore animals are subjects with a point of view. Yet, coding betrays an anthropomorphic bias: we can, therefore they must. Here I propose a reformulation of Brette's question that emphasizes organismic perception, cautioning for misinterpretations based on external ideal-observer accounts. Theoretical ethology allows computational neuroscience to understand brains from the perspective of their owners.
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ISSN:0140-525X
1469-1825
1469-1825
DOI:10.1017/S0140525X19001237