Incorporating Individual Differences into a Mechanistic Embodied Cognitive Neuroscience

The review article Theoretical strategies for an embodied cognitive neuroscience (Mougenot & Matheson, 2024) proposes that the embodied cognition framework can be applied to develop mechanistic explanations for cognitive neuroscience phenomena. In our commentary we argue that any mechanistic explanation of such phenomena must be able to account for individual differences in cognition that are an inevitable consequence of the varied brain-body-environment experiences that comprise embodied cognition. We propose that, while mechanistic accounts may be able to model individual differences, the definition of mechanistic models may limit their application to the study of individual differences.