A complete rethinking of how our brains use categories to make sense of the world

Challenging the classic view, two cognitive scientists argue in a new review that categorization is not a late, specialized stage of sensory processing. Instead, it is a core function operating at every level, anticipating bodily needs and motor plans. Categories are thus not fixed prototypes stored in "higher" areas of the cortex, but dynamically constructed from prior experience throughout all of sensory processing.