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Fallacies in Computational Neuroscience - by Yohan J John

yohanjohn.substack.com · 1,081 words · saved by 1 readers

The term “computational neuroscience” was coined in the 1980s by the late, great Eric L. Schwartz, a professor at the department where I did my PhD. At the start of his introductory course on comp neuro, he offered up a little ‘sociology’ of the field, which he captured in a diagram called the pentagon of neuroscience1. He also half-jokingly banned the word ‘consciousness’ in his classroom, because no one could provide an adequate scientific definition of “the c-word”2. Eric was a great teacher — especially of how to be skeptical of grand claims in neuroscience. He would interrupt his lectures on basic electrophysiology with wildly entertaining digressions, anecdotes3, and rants about the various “bogus” and “bodacious” claims made in neuroscience. He condensed his accumulated exasperation into a list of informal “fallacies” in computational neuroscience. I’ve reproduced his text here (with a few small edits). All this is to be taken with a sense of humor. I don’t mean any offense — th

The term “computational neuroscience” was coined in the 1980s by the late, great Eric L. Schwartz, a professor at the department where I did my PhD. At the start of his introductory course on comp neuro, he offered up a little ‘sociology’ of the field, which he captured in a diagram called the pentagon of neuroscience1. He also half-jokingly banned the word ‘consciousness’ in his classroom, because no one could provide an adequate scientific definition of “the c-word”2. Eric was a great teacher — especially of how to be skeptical of grand claims in neuroscience. He would interrupt his…

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