Psychoneural isomorphism: Historical background and current relevance

Abstract

The relevance of Wolfgang Köhler's psychoneural isomorphism principle to contemporary cognitive neuroscience is explored. Köhler's approach to the mind—body problem is interpreted as a response to the foundational crisis of psychology at the beginning of the twentieth century. Some aspects of his isomorphism doctrine are discussed, with a view to reaching an interpretation that is both historically accurate and pertinent to issues currently debated in the philosophy of psychology. The principle was meant to be empirically verifiable. Accordingly, some similarities between Köhler's approach and current neural network modeling are pointed out, and it is shown that some recent trends in the neurosciences are broadly compatible with Köhler's views on cortical functioning. Isomorphism is interpreted as a form of neuroreductionism constrained by bridging laws relating mental phenomena to macrosocopic parameters of neural function. While isomorphism is probably valid for perceptual phenomena, its applicability to higher mental processes remains doubtful.