INVESTIGADORES
VENTURELLI Alfonso Nicolas
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Conceptual Change from within the Laboratory: The Receptive Field Concept
Autor/es:
VENTURELLI, ALFONSO NICOLÁS
Lugar:
Buenos Aires
Reunión:
Workshop; Workshop on the Philosophy of Cognitive Science; 2017
Institución organizadora:
SADAF
Resumen:
I propose a historical journey centered on the ?receptive field? concept, one of the main theoretical pillars in visual neuroscience and vision science broadly conceived. Focusing on this particular concept and the way it suffered major alterations since the pioneering experiments by David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel in the mid-twentieth century, I tackle the philosophical problem of conceptual change in neuroscience, offering my view on how the concept?s evolution responds to changes in the relevant experimental practices. Specifically, I will maintain that the receptive field concept originally entailed a problem agenda structuring the field?s experimental practices. This particular role played by the concept explains, together with some related central shifts in the main experimental approaches, why its relevance and definiteness are fading out in contemporary visual neuroscience.