Cognitive neuroscience is focused on explaining cognitive phenomena conceptualized in terms of computation over representations in the brain. The Sherringtonian view of cognitive explanation emphasizes the specific connections between neurons in the brain (Fig. 1 ).
And greater appreciation of the emergent nature of knowledge in society would help us recognize the limits of cognitive neuroscience, that the study of the brain alone cannot reveal the representations responsible for activities that involve the community.
Perhaps a broader view of cognitive neuroscience as the study of information processing in a social network of neural networks can overcome the challenge posed for cognitive neuroscience by the community of knowledge.
Cognition can be defined as computation over meaningful representations in the brain to produce adaptive behaviour. There are two views on the relationship between cognition and the brain that are largely implicit in the literature.