Author response for "Wider Than the Sky: An Alternative to "Mapping" the World Onto the Brain"

2025-06-27

Author response for "Wider Than the Sky: An Alternative to "Mapping" the World Onto the Brain"

2025-03-15

Science advice at the top: a global overview of chief science advisor model in governance

Science and Public Policy · 2025-11-17

Abstract Science advice plays a key role in policymaking, with governments adopting various models to integrate expertise into decision-making. This study provides a preliminary overview of the Chief Science Advisor (CSA) model, examining its adoption across different governance structures. Our mapping analysis identifies seven countries—the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, and Ireland—that have formally institutionalized this model, while also exploring cases where it has been discontinued or never fully formalized. While the CSA is not the sole mechanism for science advice, it offers a distinct approach that balances expert guidance with political realities. Through qualitative analysis of expert interviews with former CSAs, public officers, and policy experts, we examine the professional backgrounds, competencies, and strategic roles of CSAs as well as their agenda. By assessing both the strengths and limitations of this advisory structure, this study contributes to discussions on enhancing evidence-informed governance and public trust in decision-making.

Author response for "How Might a 'Philosopher's Toolkit' Help Advance Neuroscience? Let's Ask Some Neuroscientists"

2025-01-18

How Might a ‘Philosopher's Toolkit’ Help Advance Neuroscience? Let's Ask Some Neuroscientists

European Journal of Neuroscience · 2025-04-01

In the terms adopted by the editors of this special issue concerning how a 'philosopher's toolkit' might contribute to progress in neuroscience, this paper reports posing that question to several neuroscientists, all with a track record of successfully interacting with philosophers. These discussions took the form of structured interviews following the methods of Barwich. The results highlight a number of issues that these neuroscientists think philosophers can help them solve. Different views emerged about what a 'philosopher's toolkit' consists of; but each of these neuroscientists saw some important roles that philosophers can play within neuroscience itself. Transcripts of these interviews and the accompanying analyses reveal to philosophers that some prominent neuroscientists welcome their contributions, to central outstanding questions within their specific research fields and to more general concerns that confront scientists beyond those specific to neuroscience. These discussions and analyses based upon them should be welcome to philosophers of science-in-practice, especially to a subset recently dubbed 'philosophers-in-science'. They also reveal to neuroscientists who are less familiar with interacting professionally with philosophers a glimpse of what some of their colleagues find potentially valuable about such interactions.

Wider than the Sky: An Alternative to “Mapping” the World onto the Brain

2025-02-25

This paper reevaluates the conventional topographic model of brain function, stressing the critical role of philosophical inquiry in neuroscience. Since the 1930s, pioneering studies by Penfield and subsequent advancements in visual neuroscience by Hubel and Wiesel have popularized the concept of cortical maps as representations of external and internal states. Yet, contemporary research in various sensory systems, including visual cortices in certain animals, questions the universal applicability of this model. We critique the restrictive influence of this paradigm and introduce an alternative conceptualization using the olfactory system as a model. This system's genetic diversity and dynamic neural encoding serve as a foundation for proposing a rule-based, adaptive framework for neural processing, akin to the dynamic routing in GPS technology, which moves beyond fixed spatial mappings.

Commentary: Running the Risk

Journal of Trial and Error · 2025-03-17

Wider Than the Sky: An Alternative to “Mapping” the World Onto the Brain

European Journal of Neuroscience · 2025-08-01

This paper reevaluates the conventional topographic model of brain function, stressing the critical role of philosophical inquiry in neuroscience. Since the 1930s, pioneering studies by Penfield and subsequent advancements in visual neuroscience by Hubel and Wiesel have popularized the concept of cortical maps as representations of external and internal states. Yet contemporary research in various sensory systems, including visual cortices in certain animals, questions the universal applicability of this model. We critique the restrictive influence of this paradigm and introduce an alternative conceptualization using the olfactory system as a model. This system's genetic diversity and dynamic neural encoding serve as a foundation for proposing a rule-based, adaptive framework for neural processing, akin to the dynamic routing in GPS technology, which moves beyond fixed spatial mappings.

Wider than the Sky: An Alternative to “Mapping” the World onto the Brain

2025-06-08

This paper reevaluates the conventional topographic model of brain function, stressing the critical role of philosophical inquiry in neuroscience. Since the 1930s, pioneering studies by Penfield and subsequent advancements in visual neuroscience by Hubel and Wiesel have popularized the concept of cortical maps as representations of external and internal states. Yet, contemporary research in various sensory systems, including visual cortices in certain animals, questions the universal applicability of this model. We critique the restrictive influence of this paradigm and introduce an alternative conceptualization using the olfactory system as a model. This system's genetic diversity and dynamic neural encoding serve as a foundation for proposing a rule-based, adaptive framework for neural processing, akin to the dynamic routing in GPS technology, which moves beyond fixed spatial mappings.

Wider than the Sky: An Alternative to “Mapping” the World onto the Brain

2024-08-07

This paper reevaluates the conventional topographic model of brain function, stressing the critical role of philosophical inquiry in neuroscience. Since the 1940s, pioneering studies by Penfield and subsequent advancements in visual neuroscience by Hubel and Wiesel have popularized the concept of cortical maps as representations of external and internal states. Yet, contemporary research in various sensory systems, including visual cortices in certain animals, questions the universal applicability of this model. We critique the restrictive influence of this paradigm and introduce an alternative conceptualization using the olfactory system as a model. This system's genetic diversity and dynamic neural encoding serve as a foundation for proposing a rule-based, adaptive framework for neural processing, akin to the dynamic routing in GPS technology, which moves beyond fixed spatial mappings.