The Massive Redeployment Hypothesis and the Functional Topography of the Brain
Abstract
This essay introduces the massive redeployment hypothesis, an account of the functional organization of the brain that centrally features the fact that brain areas are typically employed to support numerous functions. The central contribution of the essay is to outline a middle course between strict localization on the one hand, and holism on the other, in such a way as to account for the supporting data on both sides of the argument. The massive redeployment hypothesis is supported by case studies of redeployment, and compared and contrasted with other theories of the localization of function.
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Moderately embodied cognition invokes the massive redeployment of bodily representations to contextualize cognition.
“Moderately embodied cognition thus invokes the ‘massive redeployment’ (c.f., Anderson 2007) of bodily representations (b-representations) to contextualize cognition:”
From From cognitivism to autopoiesis: towards a computational framework for the embodied mind (2018) · cites this paper as Anderson 2007
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- Authors
- Anderson, M. L.
- Affiliations
- Franklin & Marshall College (US)
- Corresponding author
- Anderson, Michael L.
- ORCID
- Anderson, Michael L.
- Venue
- Philosophical Psychology
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2007-04
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 143-174
- ISSN
- 0951-5089 (ISSN-L)
- 1465-394X
- OpenAlex
- W2004843412
- Cited by
- 141
- References
- 94
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 14 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 12
- FWCI
- 16.72
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Philosophical Psychology (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Philosophy and Theoretical Science
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Neurology and Historical Studies
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › Philosophy and History of Science
- Keywords
- localization of function
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