Are there any specific PHP functions or commands that are recommended for achieving the desired behavior of updating only certain sections of a webpage?

When updating only certain sections of a webpage, you can use AJAX to send requests to the server and update specific elements without refreshing the entire page. In PHP, you can create separate PHP files that handle these requests and return the updated content in response to the AJAX calls.

```php
// PHP file for updating specific section of a webpage
if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] === 'POST') {
    // Process the request and update the specific section
    $updatedContent = "New content for the section";

    // Return the updated content
    echo $updatedContent;
}
```

This PHP code snippet demonstrates how you can handle AJAX requests to update specific sections of a webpage. You can customize the logic inside the conditional block to process the request and return the updated content for the desired section.