Aligning brain and behavior

Abstract

To understand how the brain generates behavior, both brain activity and behavior must be measured accurately. Although neuroscience has developed powerful tools for measuring brain activity, its behavioral measures are far more primitive, as it lacks a coherent conceptual framework for analyzing and interpreting behavior. Here I review key limitations in current studies of behavior, such as categorical measures and input/output analysis, which are manifested in conventional behavioral measures and experimental designs. I discuss how these limitations stem from the dominant linear causation paradigm, which has impeded progress in understanding the relationship between neural activity and behavior. Finally, I review recent studies that use alternative strategies for studying how the brain generates behavior and experimental results that challenge the linear causation paradigm. These results suggest a hierarchical feedback control model with intrinsic reference states, circular causation, and simultaneous reciprocal interactions between the organism and the environment.