Sensory coding, decoding, and representations: Unnecessary and troublesome constructs?

Reception of certain environmental energy patterns can allow organisms to successfully respond to present or future environmental conditions. Sensory systems are the means by which this reception occurs. The bioelectric components of this process are typically characterized as “sensory coding.” “Coding” logically requires subsequent “decoding,” and implies that the decoder has a special, commanding role. In contrast, the term “transformation,” which is sometimes applied to the prebioelectric components of sensory systems, can connote a series of changes in the medium, form, or content of sensory processes. Neither coding nor decoding are implied, no notions of “representation” or “reconstruction” of the world are introduced, and distributed, parallel processing is a natural corollary of transformations. It is proposed that the problematic construct of sensory coding, with its concomitant decoding, be replaced with the more neutral and physical concept of transformations. Elimination of the notions of representation or reconstruction of the world in some special nervous system locus is also suggested.