Why the neural ingredients for a language of thought are not like spatial cells (commentary on Kazanina & Poeppel, 2023).

This article is a commentary on a previous study that proposed that spatial cell types in the brain could be the neural ingredients for the Language of Thought (LoT). The LoT is a theory about how the mind works, suggesting that thoughts are composed of primitive representations stored in a repertoire. The author of this commentary argues against this idea, presenting four main arguments. First, spatial cells show remapping behavior that is inconsistent with the stable repertoire required by the LoT. Second, the linking hypothesis does not address how specific spatial locations, or fillers, are represented in the brain. Third, the compositionality of the LoT is not accounted for in the proposed model. Finally, the author suggests that spatial cell populations do not offer a sufficient system for the LoT and that further mechanisms are necessary. Overall, the author concludes that while spatial cells may play a role in the implementation of the LoT, they are not the neural ingredients themselves. [Extracted from the article]