Perspective paper sparks debate: causal experiments can't answer causal questions without a model of the neural code
ShahabBakht · x · 2026-10-06
Shahab Bakht recommends a perspective paper whose central claim: so-called 'causal' experiments only answer causal questions once you have a model of the neural code—a prerequisite that rarely holds in real experimental setups. In the reply thread, he adds the limitation is mostly theoretical rather than experimental: we don't know how to use perturbations to infer causality in a complex, multi-scale, adaptive network. The exchange points at a deep crack in the default assumption that perturbation experiments equal causal evidence in neuroscience and interpretability research.
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