The population doctrine in cognitive neuroscience

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Neurophysiology

Background:

• The single-neuron doctrine has historically dominated neurophysiology.
• A paradigm shift towards a population doctrine is emerging.
• Population-level approaches show promise for understanding cognition.

Purpose of the Study:

• To codify the population doctrine in neurophysiology.
• To survey recent research applying population-level thinking to cognition.
• To explore the foundational concepts of population-level analysis.

Main Methods:

• Discussion organized around five core concepts: state spaces, manifolds, coding dimensions, subspaces, and dynamics.
• Review of recent empirical and theoretical work leveraging population-level approaches.
• Analysis of how population-level thinking addresses cognitive processes.

Main Results:

• Population-level thinking is increasingly impacting cognitive neuroscience.
• Key concepts like state spaces and dynamics provide a framework for analysis.
• This approach offers novel perspectives on complex cognitive functions.

Conclusions:

• The population doctrine provides a powerful framework for understanding cognition.
• This perspective is crucial for advancing research in attention, memory, decision-making, and more.
• Population-level analysis promises significant new insights into the neural basis of cognition.