Michael Anderson

Franklin & Marshall College, Psychology, Faculty Member +2Franklin & Marshall College, Psychology, Faculty MemberUniversity of Maryland, College Park, Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, Faculty MemberStanford University, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Faculty Member

Philosophy of Mind +27

Michael L. Anderson is Associate Professor of Cognitive Science in the Department of Psychology at Franklin & Marshall College, and Visiting Assistant Professor at the Institute for Advanced Computer Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he is also a member of the Graduate Faculty in the Program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science. For 2012-13, Dr. Anderson is a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, at Stanford University.

Anderson earned a B.S. with honors in pre-medical studies at the University of Notre Dame, a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Yale University, where he was a Sterling Prize Fellow, and did his post-doctoral training in Computer Science at the University of Maryland. He was recently recognized as an "emerging leader under 40" by the Renaissance Weekend, was one of only twenty people world-wide to be invited to attend the McDonnell Project in Philosophy and the Neurosciences workshop for early career researchers, and was nominated for the 2009 Stanton Prize.

Dr. Anderson is author or co-author of over eighty scholarly and scientific publications in artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and philosophy of mind. His work has appeared in such journals as Artificial Intelligence, AI Magazine, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Connection Science, Journal of Logic and Computation, The Neuroscientist, Philosophical Psychology and Synthese. His best-known article, "Embodied Cognition: A Field Guide", was one of the most requested articles from Artificial Intelligence for 2003, 2004 2006 and 2008, and has been adopted for courses in computer science, philosophy and psychology in several countries.

Primary areas of research include an account of the evolution of the cortex via exaptation of existing neural circuitry (the "massive redeployment hypothesis"); the role of behavior, and of the brain's motor-control areas, in supporting higher-order cognitive functions; the foundations of intentionality (the connection between objects of thought and things in the world); and the role of self-monitoring and self-control in maintaining robust real-world agency.
Supervisors: Karsten Harries and K. Anthony Appiah
Address: Department of Psychology
Franklin & Marshall College
P.O. Box 3003
Lancaster, PA 17604-3003

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Papers

Allocating structure to function: The strong links between neuroplasticity and natural selection

A central question in brain evolution is how species-typical behaviors, and the neural function-s... more A central question in brain evolution is how species-typical behaviors, and the neural function-structure mappings supporting them, can be acquired and inherited. Advocates of brain modularity, in its different incarnations across scientific subfields, argue that natural selection must target domain-dedicated, separately modifiable neural subsystems, resulting in genetically-specified functional modules. In such modular systems, specification of neuron number and functional connectivity are necessarily linked. Mounting evidence, however, from allometric, developmental, comparative, systems-physiological, neuroimaging and neurological studies suggests that brain elements are used and reused in multiple functional systems. This variable allocation can be seen in short-term neuromodulation, in neuroplasticity over the lifespan and in response to damage. We argue that the same processes are evident in brain evolution. Natural selection must preserve behavioral functions that may co-locate in variable amounts with other functions. In genetics, the uses and problems of pleiotropy, the re-use of genes in multiple networks have been much discussed, but this issue has been sidestepped in neural systems by the invocation of modules. Here we highlight the interaction between evolutionary and developmental mechanisms to produce distributed and overlapping functional architectures in the brain. These adaptive mechanisms must be robust to perturbations that might disrupt critical information processing and action selection, but must also recognize useful new sources of information arising from internal genetic or environmental variability, when those appear. These contrasting properties of “robustness” and “evolvability” have been discussed for the basic organization of body plan and fundamental cell physiology. Here we extend them to the evolution and development, “evo-devo,” of brain structure.

Michael Anderson

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