What is neuroscience?
How advanced is our knowledge in this area in comparison with our knowledge in, say, physics or biology?
What are the big unanswered questions/ the areas that are priority for scientific investigation?
Ed.

There are many informative talks re this subject matter on the TED website.

Neuroscience - the scientific study of the brain and peripheral nervous system. It is worth stressing how much has been learnt about the human brain through comparative studies of animals including the nervous systems in flies and worms. It shows that some key functions in the brain have been strongly preserved throughout evolution.

The history of neuroscience and how it has changed views about mental illness can put current research into context:
1900s. First detailed microscopic analysis of brain tissue showing the intricate structure of neurons and other cells. Discovery of the synapse – the structure that connects neurons. People began to realize that mental illnesses could have physical causes with the example of syphilis infection which gives rise to mood changes psychoses and dementia.
1920s First electrical recordings from the brain and the development of the electro encephalogram. Epilepsy seen as a physical disease.
1930s: increased understanding of chemical transmission at the synapse.
1950s to present: drugs introduced to treat depression, anxiety and schizophrenia largely based on studies of the chemicals (neurotransmitters) found at synapses.
1970s to present: cognitive neuroscience combines cognitive psychology with various techniques of brain imaging such as positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Population genetic studies confirm a substantial genetic contribution to mental illnesses eg schizophrenia and depression and also personality traits and behaviours.
2000 to present - the genomic revolution. Sequencing the human genome accelerated the search for genes associated with particular disease, including mental illnesses. Genes have been identified linked to several disorders including depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, ADHD, anorexia, autism and more.
The discovery that a particular gene is linked to a particular disease marks only the beginning of a long process to unravel the actual cause of an illness. In cancer research for example genetic insights have led to better understanding of how cancers grow and new treatments have been found but the biology of mental illness is much less understood, no new treatment strategies have yet emerged but genetic studies remain the most promising and productive area of brain research.

Some things neuroscience has achieved:
Understanding sensory systems eg explaining how our eyes and brain “see” the world and how we respond to what our senses record. Considerable understanding of moods eg what gives rise to anxiety, depression. Causes of dementia. Understanding autism. Why we sleep and dream.

Areas less understood: how memories are made and stored; what is a thought or a belief and how are delusions formed? What is the basis of spirituality and sense of self? What is consciousness?

Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord and nerves). This includes looking at the anatomy of the system at a gross and also microscopic level; understanding the physiology; and also the molecular, genetic and biochemical aspects of nervous system function.

However, the nervous system is the most complicated system in the human body and our understanding of its structure and function is limited in comparison to other body systems like the cardiovascular or respiratory systems. This reflects the sheer complexity but also the challenges with investigation e.g. clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners usually image to around 5mm in contrast to neurons, which are microns in size; and clinical surface electroencephalography (EEG) is only really helpful in the assessment of certain neurological disorders e.g. epilepsy.

It is therefore very difficult to develop an understanding of normal function when we can’t produce detailed images or indeed understand the function of neural networks in “real time”. Consequently, neuroscience is limited by our very basic understanding of nervous system function. Developing techniques that allow us to understand brain function more accurately is, in my opinion, one of the priorities in clinical neuroscience at the moment.

Psychiatry and psychology explore the nature of self, thought, perception, mood, etc. Although imaging, blood tests and imaging/physiological investigations can be undertaken, it remains difficult to correlate many psychiatric or psychological concepts or disorders to changes in the nervous system directly. However, this likely reflects a lack of understanding of the nervous system for the reasons outlined earlier, rather than a lack of any correlation.

Neuroscience remains at an early stage of study. Until we get a better understanding of nervous system function, it’s very difficult to develop a scientific understanding of concepts that include thought, consciousness or the “mind”.

In this short article, the editor of the forum summarises and discusses Panpsychism: an increasingly fashionable idea that we are conscious beings because we are part of a universe in which consciousness is an inbuilt property.

Could it be that the reason we are conscious is because everything else around us is conscious too? Have we been looking for the explanation of consciousness in the wrong place? Are we just part of a wider system of consciousness? If so, does that remove the mystique surrounding the wonder of human consciousness and place us once more as just a more developed part of the natural world? And perhaps more significantly, if this so named ‘panpsychism’ is real is that another arrow in the atheist quiver of opposition towards the existence of a creator?
So who or what is conscious? You and me, for sure. And so too is the fly you failed to swat because it sensed your murderous intent!
A recent GTN Facebook comment highlighted research which demonstrated the ability of horses to recognize themselves in a mirror. The researchers claimed that the animals seemed to test their own reflection- in the way a human would- by making and watching their own movements. Consciousness in animals -even though not all might have the power of self recognition- is easily demonstrated. How else could we have a relationship with our pets, for example? And then there are those who purport to talk to plants. They have life for sure but consciousness? Much harder to sustain the argument. It raises the question: is there a hierarchy of consciousness? What about rocks, minerals, subatomic particles? In panpsychism, they have consciousness too.

Panpsychism’s benefits to those perplexed about how to explain consciousness are potentially twofold. The first is the ‘hard problem of consciousness’; the challenge of understanding how the physical processes of the brain can give rise to thoughts, perceptions, feelings and memories- including colour, pain, sound, taste. Panpsychism suggests that the means of perceiving these is a function of intrinsic properties at the heart of existence- including the material world. In other words, no great mystery; everything possesses consciousness. It’s just there!
The second benefit is that although contemporary physics gives objective descriptions of particles, when it comes to explaining what particles ‘do’ from moment to moment it can do no more than observe that particles behave in certain ways; it does not explain. Physics cannot say what that particle is like intrinsically. Maybe consciousness is the missing ingredient. Particles ‘behave ‘ because they are conscious.

So how does panpsychism work? Its exponents hold that consciousness emerges from the combination of billions of subatomic consciousnesses -rather like how atoms form molecules and then combine into more complex structures.

Panpsychism arguably gives rise to more problems than it solves. An extensive problem is how basic consciousness at a fundamental level is experienced and what allows it to function? Can there be consciousness without a ‘person’ equivalent to be aware of the experience?
Writing in ‘Psychology Today’ Dr Paul Thagard argues that consciousness is likely much more than the sum of its parts- assuming it does have constituent parts! He cites water as an example. “A water molecule consisting of hydrogen and oxygen has properties such as being liquid at room temperature that are not found in hydrogen or oxygen atoms!” So with the sophistication of consciousness. It is therefore not very convincing to argue that proto conscious particles somehow give rise to full consciousness.

Does panpsychism conflict with theism? Possibly, depending on how the theist understands consciousness and how spiritual consciousness works. Panpsychism leaves no room for dualism: the idea that humans consist of a body and a soul.

For those who would argue that panpsychism dispenses with the wonder of consciousness, there is a disappointment at the end of the line. However it is derived or explained, consciousness is an astonishing phenomenon; so much so that even something as wonderful as the human brain cannot use conscious awareness and determination alone to understand itself. It is beyond itself to explain.
But what if panpsychism could be demonstrated to be correct? Does it undermine theism?
The biggest challenge to atheists who would use science to undermine belief in God is that science itself unravels things of extraordinary wonder that then demand further explanation. The question arising is ‘why should this phenomenon be so; why does it work in this extraordinary way?’ The fact is that for consciousness to operate there needs to be a coherence to existence, something that cannot convincingly be explained by saying ‘there is an explanation that works so no author of that mechanism is required.’