In the recent thread, the issue of modularity was discussed. Anibal wrote the following:
“My humble view is that the brain is a brilliant plastic and distributed machine using one single module to more than one cognitive function and viceversa.”
This reminded me of some recent, interesting work along these lines by Michael Anderson. From his website:
“The massive redeployment hypothesis is an account of the functional structure of the brain that emphasizes the fact that many brain areas are used to support multiple cognitive functions. For instance, there is evidence for the use of brain areas primarily associated with motor contol in functions as diverse as language understanding and working memory. This is an important corrective to the modularity hypothesis, and suggests that the functional structure of the brain is not best represented by a strict topographic model.”