Issue |
EPJ Web Conf.
Volume 300, 2024
9th Complexity-Disorder Days 2023
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Article Number | 01007 | |
Number of page(s) | 10 | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202430001007 | |
Published online | 08 August 2024 |
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202430001007
Cerebralization of mathematical quantities and physical features in neural science: A critical evaluation
Centre Gilles Gaston Granger, UMR 7304 CNRS Aix Marseille Université, Aix-en-Provence, France
* Corresponding author: laurent.goffart@cnrs.fr
Published online: 8 August 2024
At the turn of the 20th century, Henri Poincaré explained that geometry is a convention and that the properties of space and time are the properties of our measuring instruments. Intriguingly, numerous contemporary authors argue that space, time and even number are “encoded” within the brain, as a consequence of evolution, adaptation and natural selection. In the neuroscientific study of movement generation, the activity of neurons would “encode” kinematic parameters: when they emit action potentials, neurons would “speak” a language carrying notions of classical mechanics. In this article, we shall explain that the movement of a body segment is the ultimate product of a measurement, a filtered numerical outcome of multiple processes taking place in parallel in the central nervous system and converging on the groups of neurons responsible for muscle contractions. The fact that notions of classical mechanics efficiently describe movements does not imply their implementation in the inner workings of the brain. Their relevance to the question how the brain activity enables one to produce accurate movements is questioned within the framework of the neurophysiology of orienting gaze movements toward a visual target.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2024
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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