A call for more clarity around causality in neuroscience

David L Barack¹, Earl K Miller², Christopher I Moore³, Adam M Packer⁴, Luiz Pessoa⁵, Lauren N Ross⁶, Nicole C Rust⁷

Affiliations

¹ Departments of Neuroscience and Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Electronic address: dbarack@gmail.com.
² The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA. Electronic address: ekmiller@mit.edu.
³ Carney Institute for Brain Science, Department of Neuroscience, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA. Electronic address: christopher_moore@brown.edu.
⁴ Department of Physiology, Anatomy, and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. Electronic address: adampacker@gmail.com.
⁵ Department of Psychology and Maryland Neuroimaging Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA. Electronic address: pessoa@umd.edu.
⁶ Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA. Electronic address: rossl@uci.edu.
⁷ Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Electronic address: nrust@psych.upenn.edu.

PMID: 35810023
PMCID: PMC9996677
DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2022.06.003

A call for more clarity around causality in neuroscience

David L Barack et al. Trends Neurosci. 2022 Sep.

. 2022 Sep;45(9):654-655.

doi: 10.1016/j.tins.2022.06.003. Epub 2022 Jul 6.

Authors

David L Barack¹, Earl K Miller², Christopher I Moore³, Adam M Packer⁴, Luiz Pessoa⁵, Lauren N Ross⁶, Nicole C Rust⁷

Affiliations

¹ Departments of Neuroscience and Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Electronic address: dbarack@gmail.com.
² The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA. Electronic address: ekmiller@mit.edu.
³ Carney Institute for Brain Science, Department of Neuroscience, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA. Electronic address: christopher_moore@brown.edu.
⁴ Department of Physiology, Anatomy, and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. Electronic address: adampacker@gmail.com.
⁵ Department of Psychology and Maryland Neuroimaging Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA. Electronic address: pessoa@umd.edu.
⁶ Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA. Electronic address: rossl@uci.edu.
⁷ Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Electronic address: nrust@psych.upenn.edu.

PMID: 35810023
PMCID: PMC9996677
DOI: 10.1016/j.tins.2022.06.003

Abstract

In neuroscience, the term 'causality' is used to refer to different concepts, leading to confusion. Here we illustrate some of those variations, and we suggest names for them. We then introduce four ways to enhance clarity around causality in neuroscience.

Keywords: causality; inactivation; perturbation; stimulation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interests The authors declare no competing interests in relation to this work.

References

1. Josselyn SA et al. (2015) Finding the engram. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 16, 521–534 - PubMed
1. Hall N (2004) Two concepts of causation. In Causation and Counterfactuals (Collins J et al., eds), pp. 225–276, MIT Press
1. Woodward J (2003) Making Things Happen: A Theory of Causal Explanation, Oxford University Press
1. Siddiqi SH et al. (2022) Causal mapping of human brain function. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 23, 361–375 - PMC - PubMed
1. Pearl J (2009) Causality (2nd edn), Cambridge University Press

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A call for more clarity around causality in neuroscience

Affiliations

A call for more clarity around causality in neuroscience

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

References

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources

Miscellaneous