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: 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]
• 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: 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?
• 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
• Sleep: What is the biological function of sleep? Why do we dream? What are the underlying brain mechanisms? What is its relation to anesthesia?
• 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: How is it implemented neurally? What is the basis of semantic meaning?
• Diseases: What are the neural bases (causes) of mental diseases like psychotic disorders (e.g. mania, schizophrenia), Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, or addiction? Is it possible to recover loss of sensory or motor function?
• Movement: How can we move so controllably, even though the motor nerve impulses seem haphazard and unpredictable? ^[3]
• 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 does general anesthetic work?

References

1. Sejnowski, Terrence J.; Hemmen, J. L. van (2006). 23 problems in systems neuroscience (PDF). Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-514822-3.
2. Tononi, G; Koch, C. (2015). "Consciousness: Here, there and everywhere?" (PDF). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society London B.

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.