When you see a dog, something happens in your brain. A pattern of activity fires, and somehow, that pattern feels like it means something. Cognitive scientists often say that your brain “represents” things — objects, ideas, emotions, and dogs. Representations is how we explain perception, memory, language, and thought.
But not everyone agrees that this idea holds up. Some say the notion of representation is more metaphor than mechanism. So what does it really mean to say your brain represents something? And is it the right way to think about what the brain does?
