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Synaptic plasticity is complex; neurobiologists are not

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 1999

Richard M. Vickery
Affiliation:
School of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australiarichard.vickery@unsw.edu.au www.med.unsw.edu.au/Physiology/school/staff/vickery/welcome.html
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Abstract

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The complexity of modern neurobiology in even a comparatively restricted area such as use-dependent synaptic plasticity is underestimated by the authors. This leads them to reject a neurobiological model of learning as conceptually parasitic on the psychology of conditioning, on the basis of objections that are shown to be unsustainable. An argument is also advanced that neurobiologists hold an intermediate version of the neuron doctrine rather than a conflated one. In this version, neurobiologists believe that psychology will eventually be underpinned by neurobiology but are agnostic about the extent of upheaval that this will produce in psychology.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press