Tangling with the Entangled Brain: Putting the Global Back into the Local

J Cogn Neurosci. 2022 Nov 28;35(3):1-3. doi: 10.1162/jocn_a_01951. Online ahead of print.

Abstract

Pessoa's precis "The Entangled Brain" is a call to action. The larger concepts resonate with existing complex systems frameworks in general and in neuroscience in particular, especially in the fields of connectomics and criticality (Cocchi, Gollo, Zalesky, & Breakspear, 2017; Bassett & Gazzaniga, 2011). What is provocative from our perspective is that despite recognizing the brain as a complex system, the experimental approaches adopted by our community largely fail to align with this recognition. In this commentary, we lay out the fundamental challenge Pessoa brings to the neuroscience community: to engage with the brain, conceptually and experimentally, as a complex whole.