Optogenetics, pluralism, and progress
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-1-2018
Journal
Philosophy of Science
Volume
85
Issue
5
First Page
1090
Last Page
1101
URL with Digital Object Identifier
10.1086/699724
Abstract
© 2018 by the Philosophy of Science Association. All rights reserved. Optogenetic techniques are described as “revolutionary” for the unprecedented causal control they allow neuroscientists to exert over neural activity in awake-behaving animals. In this article, I demonstrate by means of a case study that optogenetic techniques will only illuminate causal links between the brain and behavior to the extent that their error characteristics are known and, further, that determining these error characteristics requires (1) comparison of optogenetic techniques with techniques having well-known error characteristics (methodological pluralism) and (2) consideration of the broader neural and behavioral context in which the targets of optogenetic interventions are situated ( perspectival pluralism).
