Abstract：
Notwithstanding the huge progress in molecular and cellular neuroscience, our ability to understand the brain and develop effective treatments promoting mental health is still limited. This can be partially ascribed to the reductionist, deterministic and mechanistic approaches in neuroscience that struggle with the complexity of the central nervous system. Here, I introduce the Context theory of constrained systems proposing a novel role of contextual factors and genetic, molecular and neural substrates in determining brain functioning and behavior. This theory entails key conceptual implications. First, context is the main driver of behavior and mental states. Second, substrates, from genes to brain areas, have no direct causal link to complex behavioral responses as they can be combined in multiple ways to produce the same response and different responses can impinge on the same substrates. Third, context and biological substrates play distinct roles in determining behavior: context drives behavior, substrates constrain the behavioral repertoire that can be implemented. Fourth, since behavior is the interface between the central nervous system and the environment, it is a privileged level of control and orchestration of brain functioning. Such implications are illustrated through the Kitchen metaphor of the brain. This theoretical framework calls for the revision of key concepts in neuroscience and psychiatry, including causality, specificity and individuality. Moreover, at the clinical level, it proposes treatments inducing behavioral changes through contextual interventions as having the highest impact to reorganize the complexity of the human mind and to achieve a long-lasting improvement in mental health.
摘要：
尽管分子和细胞神经科学取得了巨大的进步，我们了解大脑和开发促进心理健康的有效治疗方法的能力仍然有限。这可以部分归因于简化主义者，神经科学中的确定性和机械性方法与中枢神经系统的复杂性作斗争。这里,我介绍了约束系统的上下文理论，提出了上下文因素和遗传的新作用，决定大脑功能和行为的分子和神经底物。这一理论包含关键的概念含义。首先,情境是行为和精神状态的主要驱动因素。第二,基材,从基因到大脑区域，与复杂的行为反应没有直接的因果关系，因为它们可以以多种方式组合以产生相同的反应，并且不同的反应可以影响相同的底物。第三，上下文和生物底物在决定行为方面发挥着不同的作用：上下文驱动行为，底物限制了可以实现的行为库。第四，因为行为是中枢神经系统和环境之间的接口，它是大脑功能的控制和编排的特权水平。通过大脑的厨房隐喻来说明这种含义。这个理论框架要求修订神经科学和精神病学的关键概念，包括因果关系，特殊性和个性。此外，在临床层面，它提出了通过情境干预诱导行为改变的治疗方法，认为它对重组人类思维的复杂性和实现心理健康的长期改善具有最大的影响。
