Functional Independence and Cognitive Architecture

Abstract

In cognitive science, the concept of dissociation has been central to the functional individuation and decomposition of cognitive systems. Setting aside debates about the legitimacy of inferring the existence of dissociable systems from behavioral dissociation data, the main idea behind the dissociation approach is that two cognitive systems are dissociable, and therefore viewed as distinct, if each can be damaged, or impaired, without affecting the other system's functions. In this paper, I propose a notion of functional independence that does not require dissociability, and describe an approach to the functional decomposition and modelling of cognitive systems that complements the dissociation approach. I show that highly integrated cognitive and neurocognitive systems can be decomposed into non-dissociable but functionally independent components, and argue that this approach can provide a general account of cognitive specialization in terms of stable structure-function relationship.

Neural Reuse: A New Perspective on the Fusiform Face Area

“…The massive modularist's conception of a module is more consistent with neuropsychological findings, however I will argue that neural reuse is more consistent than massive modularity). Indeed, massive modularity does not seem to stand up to the evidence coming from neuroscience and when examining neural activation across experiments (e.g., across domains, modalities and tasks), such as the findings associated with Broca's area discussed in Section 2 (Bergeron, 2015). Together, the shifting back and forth between two modular perspectives, in addition to their weak ability to explain a wide variety of functions, creates an obstacle to understanding the actual cognitive architecture of the brain.…”

“…What's required is that they simply run independent of each other, i.e., one can be damaged without affecting the other (Bergeron, 2007). Moreover, Bergeron (2015) explains that while the view that double dissociations support modularity is an inference to the best explanation, these same outcomes can be observed for non-dissociable systems. Bergeron (2015) unpacks this claim using workings and the uses of workings to demonstrate that a use can be eliminated while leaving the working intact.…”

“…Bergeron uses the example of Broca's area to add clarity to this; the hierarchical sequencer that is thought to be the working of Broca's area can remain intact even though one of the uses it supports, e.g., language production, is damaged. In this case, some of the brain regions that the working collaborates with to produce language have been damaged, but the areas that it collaborates with to perform object manipulation, for example, remain intact (Bergeron, 2015). Thus while Broca's and Wernike's area are said to be functionally independent from a modular perspective, the same functional independence could be observed by applying a neural reuse perspective to Broca's area, where independence is attributed to the reuse of a single brain region for multiple uses, rather than the dissociation of two brain regions.…”