ArticleJournal of neurogenetics
'Necessary and sufficient' in biology is not necessarily necessary - confusions and erroneous conclusions resulting from misapplied logic in the field of biology, especially neuroscience.
Article in Journal of neurogenetics. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 25 papers.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed.
- Segmentally repeated ventral nerve cord circuits drive different leg rubbing behaviors iniScience · 2026Article
- Drosophila DNp03 descending neurons serve as a hub within a flight saccade network.Current biology : CB · 2026Article
- Triggering and modulation of a complex behavior by a single peptidergic command neuron inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Beyond Mechanism-Extending Our Concepts of Causation in Neuroscience.The European journal of neuroscience · 2025Review
- Recurrent Neural Circuits Overcome Partial Inactivation by Compensation and Re-learning.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024Article
- Deep phenotyping of post-infectious myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Descending control of motor sequences in Drosophila.Current opinion in neurobiology · 2024Review
- Article
- A critical role for cortical amygdala circuitry in shaping social encounters.Research square · 2023Article
- Interpreting and validating complexity and causality in lesion-symptom prognoses.Brain communications · 2023Review
- A pair of commissural command neurons inducesiScience · 2022Article
- What can we learn from inactivation studies? Lessons from auditory cortex.Trends in neurosciences · 2022Review
- Alteration in information flow through a pair of feeding command neurons underlies a form of Pavlovian conditioning in the Drosophila brain.Current biology : CB · 2021Article
- Review
- Sensitivity to expression levels underlies differential dominance of a putative null allele of the Drosophila tβh gene in behavioral phenotypes.PLoS biology · 2021Article
- Mini-brain computations converting dynamic olfactory inputs into orientation behavior.Current opinion in neurobiology · 2020Review
- Total Recall: Lateral Habenula and Psychedelics in the Study of Depression and Comorbid Brain Disorders.International journal of molecular sciences · 2020Review
- Article
- Parenting - a paradigm for investigating the neural circuit basis of behavior.Current opinion in neurobiology · 2020Review
- Improving natural product research translation: From source to clinical trial.FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
In this article, we describe an incorrect use of logic which involves the careless application of the 'necessary and sufficient' condition originally used in formal logic. This logical fallacy is causing frequent confusion in current biology, especially in neuroscience. In order to clarify this problem, we first dissect the structure of this incorrect logic (which we refer to as 'misapplied-N&S') to show how necessity and sufficiency in misapplied-N&S are not matching each other. Potential pitfalls of utilizing misapplied-N&S are exemplified by cases such as the discrediting of command neurons and other potentially key neurons, the distorting of truth in optogenetic studies, and the wrongful justification of studies with little meaning. In particular, the use of the word 'sufficient' in optogenetics tends to generate misunderstandings by opening up multiple interpretations. To avoid the confusion caused by the misleading logic, we now recommend using 'indispensable and inducing' instead of using 'necessary and sufficient.' However, we ultimately recommend fully articulating the limits of what our experiments suggest, not relying on such simple phrases. Only after this problem is fully understood and more rigorous language is demanded, can we finally interpret experimental results in an accurate way.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.