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From Localization to Coordination: Distributed Causality and the Emergence of Biological Function in the Brain and Plant Systems
Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padova, Italy
Biology 2026, 15(12), 936; https://doi.org/10.3390/biology15120936 (registering DOI)
Submission received: 18 May 2026
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Revised: 9 June 2026
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Accepted: 13 June 2026
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Published: 15 June 2026
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 15 Years of Biology: The View Ahead)
Simple Summary
Scientists have long believed that different parts of the brain or body are responsible for specific functions. However, growing research shows that living systems work more like teams than isolated parts. This article explains that both the human brain and plants depend on many signals and processes working together in a coordinated way. For example, the brain creates thoughts and behavior through communication between many regions, while plants can react to stress, injury, or changes in the environment by sending signals throughout the whole organism, even though they do not have a brain or nervous system. The study suggests that what matters most is not where a function is located, but how different parts interact and cooperate over time. By comparing brains and plants, the article shows that complex behavior can emerge without a single control center. Understanding living systems in this way could help scientists better study health, behavior, and adaptation in both humans and plants, and may lead to new approaches in biology and neuroscience research.
Abstract
The classical localizationist framework in biology and neuroscience has provided a powerful approach for linking structure to function. However, increasing evidence indicates that biological functions emerge from distributed interactions across complex systems. While network and systems-based approaches have advanced this transition, they often remain focused on connectivity patterns or statistical dependencies. In this review, I argue that a further conceptual step is required: a coordination-based framework in which biological function emerges from the context-dependent selective stabilization of interactions among distributed components that become causally relevant for specific outcomes. I develop this perspective comparing brain network organization and plant signaling, two systems that exhibit adaptive behavior without relying on centralized control. Across both domains, function depends on the dynamic coordination of heterogeneous processes operating across multiple spatial and temporal scales. This framework acknowledges structural specialization but argues that specialized components become effective through coordinated interaction regimes. I further discuss how this perspective extends current systems biology approaches by prioritizing temporally structured interaction patterns as the primary explanatory target. Finally, I outline empirically testable predictions suggesting that biological function is better captured by time-resolved coordination dynamics, hub-mediated integration, and metastable interaction regimes than by localized activity or static connectivity.
