List of unsolved problems in neuroscience

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There are yet unsolved problems in neuroscience, although some of these problems have evidence supporting a hypothesized solution, and the field is rapidly evolving. 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?^[1][2]

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?
• Movement:
  • How can we move so controllably, even though the motor nerve impulses seem haphazard and unpredictable?^[3]

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[]

• Development and evolution:
  • How and why did the brain evolve?
  • What are the molecular determinants of individual brain development?
• Free will, particularly the neuroscience of free will
• Diseases:
  • What are the neural bases (causes) of mental diseases like psychotic disorders (e.g. mania, schizophrenia), Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, or addiction?
  • Is it possible to recover loss of sensory or motor function?
• 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?
• Neural computation: What are all the different types of neuron and what do they do in the human brain?^[4]
• 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.?

References[]

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.