What is computational neuroscience? (XXXVI) Codes and processes | Romain Brette

There are two classes of problems with the concept of neural codes. Initially, while working on my critique of the neural coding metaphor, I focused mostly on the epistemic problem (the first two p…

There are two classes of problems with the concept of neural codes. Initially, while working on my critique of the neural coding metaphor , I focused mostly on the epistemic problem (the first two parts of the paper). The epistemic problem is that when we say that Y is a neural code for X and that Y is metaphorically decoded by the brain, we imply that Y is informative about X by simple virtue of being in lawful relation with X. But this is a kind of information that is only available to an external observer who can see both X and Y, knows the two domains and the correspondence. If not X but X

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