Unsolved problems in neuroscience

There are yet unsolved problems in neuroscience, although some of these problems have evidence supporting a hypothesized solution, and the field is rapidly evolving. One major problem is even enumerating what would belong on a list such as this. However, these problems include:

Consciousness

• Consciousness:
  • What is the neural basis of subjective experience, cognition, wakefulness, alertness, arousal, and attention?
  • Is there a "hard problem of consciousness"?
    • If so, how is it solved?
  • What, if any, is the function of consciousness?

Sensation, perception and movement

• Perception:
  • How does the brain transfer sensory information into coherent, private percepts?
  • What are the rules by which perception is organized?
  • What are the features/objects that constitute our perceptual experience of internal and external events?
  • How are the senses integrated?
  • What is the relationship between subjective experience and the physical world?

Learning and memory

• Learning and memory:
  • Where do our memories get stored and how are they retrieved again?
  • How can learning be improved?
  • What is the difference between explicit and implicit memories?
  • What molecule is responsible for synaptic tagging?
• Neuroplasticity: How plastic is the mature brain?
• Cognition and decisions:
  • How and where does the brain evaluate reward value and effort (cost) to modulate behavior?
  • How does previous experience alter perception and behavior?
  • What are the genetic and environmental contributions to brain function?

Language

• Language:
  • How is it implemented neurally?
  • What is the basis of semantic meaning?

Mind-body connection

• Free will, particularly the neuroscience of free will.
• Sleep:
  • What is the biological function of sleep?
  • Why do we dream?
  • What are the underlying brain mechanisms?
  • What is its relation to anesthesia?

Computational neuroscience

• Computational theory of mind: What are the limits of understanding thinking as a form of computing?
• Computational neuroscience:
  • How important is the precise timing of action potentials for information processing in the neocortex?
  • Is there a canonical computation performed by cortical columns?
  • How is information in the brain processed by the collective dynamics of large neuronal circuits?
  • What level of simplification is suitable for a description of information processing in the brain?
  • What is the neural code?
• How do general anesthetics work?
• Noogenesis - the emergence and evolution of intelligence: What are the laws and mechanisms - of new idea emergence (insight, creativity synthesis, intuition, decision-making, eureka); development (evolution) of an individual mind in the ontogenesis, etc.?

See also

• List of unsolved problems in mathematics
• List of unsolved problems in physics

External links

• The Human Brain Project Homepage
• David Eagleman (August 2007). "10 Unsolved Mysteries of the Brain". Discover Magazine.
• Dennett D (April 2001). "Are we explaining consciousness yet?". Cognition. 79 (1–2): 221–37. doi:10.1016/S0010-0277(00)00130-X. PMID 11164029. S2CID 2235514.