A
Population Doctrine in
Neuroscience Workshop
Will
be held at the Cathedral of
Learning on 25th-26th October
2025.
More
information, including
registration link and
schedule can be fund
here: A
Population Doctrine in
Neuroscience Workshop -
The Center for Philosophy
of Science
We are
pleased to announce an
interdisciplinary 2-day
workshop held at the
Center for Philosophy of
Science at the University
of Pittsburgh. The
workshop will focus on
topics related to a shift
in neuroscience from the
investigation of single neurons
to populations of
neurons. The investigation
of single neurons has been
supported by the
so-called neuron
doctrine, which
posits the neuron as the
fundamental structural and
functional unit of the
nervous system. As the
focus moves away from
single neurons and toward
populations of neurons,
some have called for a
new, population
doctrine. But the
conceptual and
methodological commitments
of a potential population
doctrine, as well as its
significance, remain
underexplored.
The
goal of the workshop is to
arrive at an
interdisciplinary
perspective on the nature
and significance of the
population doctrine and
its relation to what came
before. In particular, we
aim to bring
neuroscientists,
philosophers, and
historians together to
answer the following
questions:
-What
is the population
doctrine? How is it
related to the neuron
doctrine?
-What
are the conceptual,
explanatory, ontological,
and methodological
commitments of the
population doctrine? For
example,
-Are
population level measures
and analyses simply
providing a more compact
representation of neural
activity or are they
providing unique insights
that are not otherwise
accessible?
-What
are the explanatory
advantages of population
measures over single-unit
measures?
-Does
the form of explanation
change or is the
population doctrine just
“more of the same”?
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