# Neuroscience **Entity class:** Concept or analytic term **Collection:** [[collections/Neurotech|Neurotech]] **Type:** Scientific discipline **Primary sources:** [[articles/2026 Annual Report on Brain-Computer Interfaces|2026 Annual Report on Brain-Computer Interfaces]]; [[articles/The Organic-Synthetic Brain Atlas|The Organic-Synthetic Brain Atlas]] ## Relationships - Neuroscience supplies the biological, anatomical, functional, and causal frameworks underlying [[wiki/Connectomics|connectomics]] and [[wiki/Brain-Computer Interfaces|BCIs]]. - It intersects [[wiki/Electrical Engineering|electrical engineering]] in instrumentation and [[wiki/Computer Science|computer science]] in reconstruction, modeling, and decoding. <!-- BEGIN HUMANIZED RELATIONSHIPS 2026-09-11 --> This entry's documented connections are expressed in its definition and related-work routes, with provenance retained in the source-linked material. <!-- END HUMANIZED RELATIONSHIPS 2026-09-11 --> - **Edge source route:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] connects this topic to exact Annual Question passages promoted into the Simple Reminders archive. - **Neurotech source and collection relationship:** [[collections/Neurotech|Neurotech]] maps the applicable interface evidence in [[articles/Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer|Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer]] and [[articles/2026 Annual Report on Brain-Computer Interfaces|2026 Annual Report on Brain-Computer Interfaces]]. ## Related Work in the Corpus <!-- BEGIN HUMANIZED CORPUS ROUTES 2026-09-11 --> - In [[articles/2026 Annual Report on Brain-Computer Interfaces|2026 Annual Report on Brain-Computer Interfaces]], **MICrONS: Function-Structure Registration at Mammalian Scale** provides the narrative context for **Neuroscience**: Key Princeton contributors include J. <!-- END HUMANIZED CORPUS ROUTES 2026-09-11 --> ## Simple Reminders, Quotations, and Thoughts > "Not only does the conviction that the brain is responsible for all of human experience not threaten human dignity; I believe it can actually increase it." > **— Michael McCullough**, *2015, Edge annual question “What Do You Think About Machines That Think?”* [[reminders/AI Control/A Mechanistic Brain Can Strengthen Human Dignity by Michael McCullough|A Mechanistic Brain Can Strengthen Human Dignity by Michael McCullough]] > "Computation is still the best, indeed the only, scientific explanation we have of how a physical object like a brain can act intelligently." > **— Alison Gopnik**, *2015, Edge annual question “What Do You Think About Machines That Think?”* [[reminders/Information/Computation Is Our Best Explanation of Intelligent Brains by Alison Gopnik|Computation Is Our Best Explanation of Intelligent Brains by Alison Gopnik]] > "If you are a scientist, computers can help you extend your brainpower to create well beyond what was possible a few decades back." > **— Marcelo Gleiser**, *2015, Edge annual question “What Do You Think About Machines That Think?”* [[reminders/Consciousness/Computers Extend Scientists’ Brainpower by Marcelo Gleiser|Computers Extend Scientists’ Brainpower by Marcelo Gleiser]] > "What we normally call thinking is obsessively "goal oriented." But is there a kind of goal serving no purpose—and can only a human brain latch onto such a perverse idea?" > **— Richard Foreman**, *2015, Edge annual question “What Do You Think About Machines That Think?”* [[reminders/Machine Succession/Goal-Free Thinking May Be Uniquely Human by Richard Foreman|Goal-Free Thinking May Be Uniquely Human by Richard Foreman]] > "Perhaps individual machines may never "think" in a way that resembles individual human consciousness as we understand it." > **— Rebecca MacKinnon**, *2015, Edge annual question “What Do You Think About Machines That Think?”* [[reminders/Consciousness/Machines May Never Think Like Human Consciousness by Rebecca MacKinnon|Machines May Never Think Like Human Consciousness by Rebecca MacKinnon]] > “I've changed my mind. I don't think it's possible to understand events at any one level of analysis without taking into account what occurs at other levels. In particular, I'm now convinced that at least some aspects of the structure and function of the brain can only be understood by situating the brain in a specific cultural context. I'm not simply saying that the brain has evolved to function in a specific type of environment (an idea that forms a mainstay of evolutionary psychology and some areas of computer vision, where statistics of the natural environment are used to guide processing). Rather, I'm saying that to understand how any specific brain functions, we need to understand how that person was raised, and currently functions, in the surrounding culture.” > **— Stephen M. Kosslyn**, *2008, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT HAVE YOU CHANGED YOUR MIND ABOUT? WHY?”* [[reminders/Identity/A Brain Cannot Be Understood Apart From Its Cultural Context by Stephen M. Kosslyn|A Brain Cannot Be Understood Apart From Its Cultural Context by Stephen M. Kosslyn]] > “The Cartesian wall between mind and brain has fallen. Its disintegration has been aided by the emergence of a wealth of new techniques in collecting and analyzing neurobiological data, including neuroprediction, which is the use of human brain imaging data to predict how the brain’s owner will feel or behave in the future. The reality of neuroprediction requires accepting the fact that human thoughts and choices are a reflection of basic biological processes. It also has the potential to transform fields like mental health and criminal justice.” > **— Abigail Marsh**, *2016, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER THE MOST INTERESTING RECENT [SCIENTIFIC] NEWS? WHAT MAKES IT IMPORTANT?”* [[reminders/AI Control/Brain Data Can Predict How a Person Will Feel or Behave by Abigail Marsh|Brain Data Can Predict How a Person Will Feel or Behave by Abigail Marsh]] > “The major change through the prehistory of our species is the evolution of our brain, the development of a social organ that makes human culture (and language) part of our biology. My question is whether we can ever transcend the consequences and free ourselves of the biological limitations that have been imposed in the process.” > **— Milford H. Wolpoff**, *1998, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT QUESTIONS ARE YOU ASKING YOURSELF?”* [[reminders/Evolution/Can Humans Transcend the Biological Limits Built Into Our Brains by Milford H. Wolpoff|Can Humans Transcend the Biological Limits Built Into Our Brains by Milford H. Wolpoff]] > “The mystery is us. What kind of creatures are we? Are we composites of physical bodies and nonphysical experiences? Or are we entirely physical, or entirely nonphysical? Do brains create conscious experiences, or vice versa? Could some complex pattern of neural activity in my brain actually cause, or be identical with, my experience of red? How, precisely? Is the distinction between physical and nonphysical even useful here?” > **— Donald D. Hoffman**, *2003, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT ARE THE PRESSING SCIENTIFIC ISSUES FOR THE NATION AND THE WORLD, AND WHAT IS YOUR ADVICE ON HOW I CAN BEGIN TO DEAL WITH THEM? - GWB”* [[reminders/Consciousness/Do Brains Create Conscious Experience or Does Consciousness Create Brains by Donald D. Hoffman|Do Brains Create Conscious Experience or Does Consciousness Create Brains by Donald D. Hoffman]] > “Neurophysics, real and artificial neural networks, classical and quantum algorithms, information and complexity—standard tools that prove powerful in the study of perception, cognition and intelligence—have yet to yield a single scientific theory of conscious experiences. We cannot, for instance, answer the basic question: Why must this particular pattern of neural activity or this functional property cause, or be, this particular conscious experience (say, the smell of garlic) instead of that other conscious experience (say, the smell of a truffle), or instead of no conscious experience at all? Precise predictions of this type, de rigueur for genuine scientific explanations, have yet to be fashioned, or even plausibly sketched, with the standard tools.” > **— Donald D. Hoffman**, *2007, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT ARE YOU OPTIMISTIC ABOUT?”* [[reminders/Consciousness/Our Best Tools Still Do Not Explain Conscious Experience by Donald D. Hoffman|Our Best Tools Still Do Not Explain Conscious Experience by Donald D. Hoffman]] > “The predictive brain presents us with an unprecedented opportunity for new discoveries about how a human brain creates a human mind. New evidence suggests that thoughts, feelings, perceptions, memories, decision-making, categorization, imagination, and many other mental phenomena, which historically are treated as distinct brain processes, can all be united by a single mechanism, prediction. Even our theory of human nature is up for grabs, as prediction deprives us of our most cherished narrative: the epic battle between rationality and emotions to control behavior.” > **— Lisa Feldman Barrett**, *2016, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER THE MOST INTERESTING RECENT [SCIENTIFIC] NEWS? WHAT MAKES IT IMPORTANT?”* [[reminders/Consciousness/Prediction May Be the Common Mechanism Behind Much of the Mind by Lisa Feldman Barrett|Prediction May Be the Common Mechanism Behind Much of the Mind by Lisa Feldman Barrett]] > “Why is our western civilization so reluctant to accept subjective, first-hand experience as fundamental data? In close association: why the reluctance to consider one's experience as a realm to be explored with a discipline just as rigorous as the one invented by science for material phenomena?” > **— Francisco Varela**, *1998, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT QUESTIONS ARE YOU ASKING YOURSELF?”* [[reminders/Consciousness/Subjective Experience Should Be Treated as Fundamental Data by Francisco Varela|Subjective Experience Should Be Treated as Fundamental Data by Francisco Varela]] > “An idea that would be "dangerous if true" is what Francis Crick referred to as "the astonishing hypothesis"; the notion that our conscious experience and sense of self is based entirely on the activity of a hundred billion bits of jelly—the neurons that constitute the brain. We take this for granted in these enlightened times, but even so, it never ceases to amaze me.” > **— Vilayanur Ramachandran**, *2006, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT IS YOUR DANGEROUS IDEA?”* [[reminders/Consciousness/The Conscious Self May Be Entirely the Activity of Neurons by Vilayanur Ramachandran|The Conscious Self May Be Entirely the Activity of Neurons by Vilayanur Ramachandran]] > “Gaining knowledge and skills should benefit survival, but not if you spend all of your time immersed in the Internet. The intermittent rewards can become addictive, hijacking your dopamine neurons that predict future rewards. The Internet, however, has not been around long enough, and is changing too rapidly, to know what the long-term effects will be on brain function. What is the ultimate price for omniscience?” > **— Terrence J. Sejnowski**, *2010, Edge Annual Question, “HOW IS THE INTERNET CHANGING THE WAY YOU THINK?”* [[reminders/AI Control/The Internet Can Hijack the Neurons That Predict Reward by Terrence J. Sejnowski|The Internet Can Hijack the Neurons That Predict Reward by Terrence J. Sejnowski]] > “We take each other's consciousness on faith because we must, but after two thousand years of worrying about this issue, no one has ever devised a definitive test of its existence. Most cognitive scientists believe that consciousness is a phenomenon that emerges from the complex interaction of decidedly nonconscious parts (neurons), but even when we finally understand the nature of that complex interaction, we still won't be able to prove that it produces the phenomenon in question. And yet, I haven't the slightest doubt that everyone I know has an inner life, a subjective experience, a sense of self, that is very much like mine.” > **— Daniel Gilbert**, *2005, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IS TRUE EVEN THOUGH YOU CANNOT PROVE IT?”* [[reminders/Consciousness/We Take Other Minds on Faith by Daniel Gilbert|We Take Other Minds on Faith by Daniel Gilbert]] > “This question was asked by my eight-year-old grandson George. In eight letters it summarizes the conundrum of personal existence in an impersonal universe. How does it happen that a couple of liters of grey matter organizes itself into the unique stream of self-awareness that calls itself George? If we could answer this question, we would be on the way toward an understanding of brain structure and function at a deep level. We would probably have in our hands the key to a more rational and discriminating treatment of mental illnesses. We might also have the key to the design of a genuine artificial intelligence.” > **— Freeman Dyson**, *2002, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT IS YOUR QUESTION? ... WHY?”* [[reminders/Consciousness/Why Does Grey Matter Become a Unique Stream of Self-Awareness by Freeman Dyson|Why Does Grey Matter Become a Unique Stream of Self-Awareness by Freeman Dyson]] > “What new methodology will be required to explain the neural basis of consciousness?” > **— Leo M. Chalupa**, *2018 Edge Annual Question, question* [[reminders/Neural Interfaces/What Method Could Explain the Neural Basis of Consciousness by Leo M. Chalupa|What Method Could Explain the Neural Basis of Consciousness by Leo M. Chalupa]] > “During the past decade, theorists of mind and brain have finally been able to model the detailed temporal dynamics of known brain cells and circuits...AND the observable behaviors that they control, using the same model. Thus, for the first time in history, there are theories powerful enough to begin to explicitly show how our minds arise from our brains.” > **— Stephen Grossberg**, *2000 Edge Annual Question, response passage* [[reminders/Consciousness/Brain-Circuit Models Begin to Explain How Minds Arise by Stephen Grossberg|Brain-Circuit Models Begin to Explain How Minds Arise by Stephen Grossberg]] > “What's good enough for the body is good enough for the brain. Brains, like any other organ, take their special character from the actions of individual cells that divide, differentiate, migrate, and die, according to genetic programs that are the product of evolution.” > **— Gary Marcus**, *2004 Edge Annual Question, response passage* [[reminders/Evolution/The Brain Develops Through Evolutionary Cell Programs by Gary Marcus|The Brain Develops Through Evolutionary Cell Programs by Gary Marcus]] > “Since the Brainstem’s activity is related to basic physiological and homeostatic functions, its activity is permanent, allowing the continuum construct of the “self.” Although our external appearance changes during our lifetime, our internal organs and biological functions remain mostly unchanged; if our consciousness is therefore grounded on those constant biological functions, it will also remain mostly constant.” > **— Eduardo Salcedo-Albaran**, *2017 Edge Annual Question, response passage* [[reminders/Consciousness/Could the Brainstem Anchor the Continuity of Self by Eduardo Salcedo-Albaran|Could the Brainstem Anchor the Continuity of Self by Eduardo Salcedo-Albaran]] > “I believe neuroscientists will never have enough understanding of the neural code, the secret language of the brain, to read peoples' thoughts without their consent.” > **— John Horgan**, *2005 Edge Annual Question, stated belief* [[reminders/Information/Neuroscientists May Never Read Thoughts Without Consent by John Horgan|Neuroscientists May Never Read Thoughts Without Consent by John Horgan]] > “[Patients with residual vision despite lack of conscious awareness] can orient in space, or they can discriminate simple patterns, but they do not know that they can do it. This phenomenon became known as "blindsight".” > **— Ernst Pöppel**, *2004 Edge Annual Question, response passage* [[reminders/Consciousness/Blindsight Shows Vision Without Awareness by Ernst Pöppel|Blindsight Shows Vision Without Awareness by Ernst Pöppel]] > “We know that the prefrontal-limbic neural circuitry crucial for social and emotional abilities is the last part of the human brain to become anatomically mature, not finishing this developmental task until the mid-20s. During that window, children's life abilities become set as neurons come online and are interconnected for better or for worse. A child's experiences dictate how those connections are made.” > **— Daniel Goleman**, *2005 Edge Annual Question, response passage* [[reminders/Human Animality/Social and Emotional Circuits Mature Into the Twenties by Daniel Goleman|Social and Emotional Circuits Mature Into the Twenties by Daniel Goleman]] > “Emerging physiological, behavioral, and neuroimaging evidence suggests that emotions are proactive as well as reactive. Emotional signals from the brain now yield predictions about choice and mental health symptoms, and may soon guide scientists to specific circuits that confer more precise control over thought and behavior.” > **— Brian Knutson**, *2014 Edge Annual Question, response passage* [[reminders/Consciousness/Emotions Are Proactive as Well as Reactive by Brian Knutson|Emotions Are Proactive as Well as Reactive by Brian Knutson]]