List of 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. 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?

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.?

References

Sejnowski, Terrence J.; Hemmen, J. L. van (2006). 23 problems in systems neuroscience (PDF). Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-514822-0.
Tononi, Giulio; Koch, Christof (2015). "Consciousness: Here, there and everywhere?". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 370 (1668): 20140167. doi:10.1098/rstb.2014.0167. PMC 4387509. PMID 25823865.

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.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] Sejnowski, Terrence J.; Hemmen, J. L. van (2006). 23 problems in systems neuroscience (PDF). Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-514822-0.

[2] Tononi, Giulio; Koch, Christof (2015). "Consciousness: Here, there and everywhere?". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 370 (1668): 20140167. doi:10.1098/rstb.2014.0167. PMC 4387509. PMID 25823865.