Simply asking “what are the top mysteries of the brain” [1] results in this list. Answers are based on knowing how the brain works. For real! Most of these answers are references to existing content. Yes, some clicking will be required to access them. Deal with it. Other than a short dissertation on clocking below, this piece is mostly reference to previous works, but it is nice to have it within one presentation.
“The human brain remains one of science’s greatest frontiers, with numerous profound mysteries still unsolved. * Among the most significant are:
Consciousness: What is the neural basis of subjective experience? How does physical brain activity give rise to self-awareness, thoughts, and feelings? This is often referred to as the “hard problem” of consciousness.
The Binding Problem: How does the brain integrate separate sensory inputs—such as sight, sound, and emotion—into a unified, coherent experience?
Memory: While we know memory involves synaptic connections, we do not fully understand how the brain encodes, stores, and retrieves specific memories, especially the mechanisms behind spontaneous recall.
Dreams: Despite knowing that dreams occur during REM and non-REM sleep, the brain’s exact processes during dreaming remain unclear, including how complex imagery and narratives are constructed.
Neurodegeneration: The root causes of diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are still not fully understood, particularly why nerve cells deteriorate with age and what triggers the onset in otherwise healthy individuals.
Neural Coding: How do neurons encode information? There is no clear map of where or how specific thoughts, actions, or memories are stored in the brain’s vast network.
Phantom Limb and Perception: Why do amputees feel sensations from missing limbs, and how does the brain construct a consistent perception of the world from fragmented sensory data?
Free Will and Mental Causation: How do conscious mental states lead to physical actions? The relationship between thought and behavior remains deeply debated.
These mysteries highlight the brain’s extraordinary complexity and the ongoing quest to understand how it generates thought, emotion, and identity.” [1]
Here are the answers:
“Consciousness: What is the neural basis of subjective experience? How does physical brain activity give rise to self-awareness, thoughts, and feelings? This is often referred to as the “hard problem” of consciousness.” [1]
See THE HARD PROBLEM AND OTHER AWARENESS WHAT IT IS WHAT IT IS NOT [2]
“The Binding Problem: How does the brain integrate separate sensory inputs—such as sight, sound, and emotion—into a unified, coherent experience?” [1]
See #6 [3] ANSWERING THE REDDIT 20 QUESTIONS ABOUT THE BRAIN. How all the parts of the brain integrate and work together?
“Memory: While we know memory involves synaptic connections, we do not fully understand how the brain encodes, stores, and retrieves specific memories, especially the mechanisms behind spontaneous recall.” [1]
See #2 [3] ANSWERING THE REDDIT 20 QUESTIONS ABOUT THE BRAIN. How are memories stored and retrieved?
“Dreams: Despite knowing that dreams occur during REM and non-REM sleep, the brain’s exact processes during dreaming remain unclear, including how complex imagery and narratives are constructed.” [1]
See [4] LITTLE RICCI EXPLAINS SLEEP AND DREAMING WHAT THEY ARE WHAT THEY ARE NOT
“Neurodegeneration: The root causes of diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are still not fully understood, particularly why nerve cells deteriorate with age and what triggers the onset in otherwise healthy individuals. ” [1]
A medical question. This study does not address medical conditions.
“Neural Coding: How do neurons encode information? There is no clear map of where or how specific thoughts, actions, or memories are stored in the brain’s vast network. ” [1]
See #1 [3] ANSWERING THE REDDIT 20 QUESTIONS ABOUT THE BRAIN. How is information encoded by the neurons?
“Phantom Limb and Perception: Why do amputees feel sensations from missing limbs, and how does the brain construct a consistent perception of the world from fragmented sensory data? ” [1]
A combination question of two topics. First: amputees feel sensations from missing limbs because a nerve does not activate only when it reaches its end. The
My father had lost his left leg when he was very young playing soccer on a dirt field when another player’s steel cleats ripped the leg open and Gangrene set in. He was deliverying appliances then and continued it with an open injury. The leg had to be removed. He constantly mentioned how he knew his left big toe needed scratching or his left knee was hurting. The leg was removed four inches above the knee. The reason the sensations still existed is the nerves leading to those areas still existed, only cut short. He could scratch his left ankle without having one.
A normal nerve ending is not needed to send a signal to the brain. The connection is there and a signal will be sent regardless. Simple.
The second part of the question involves clocking and stepped processes: “how does the brain construct a consistent perception of the world from fragmented sensory data?” See See #5 [3] ANSWERING THE REDDIT 20 QUESTIONS ABOUT THE BRAIN. How all the parts of the brain integrate and work together. Also see The Brain Is A Wonderful Thing [6}. Chapter 13 The Biological Clock and Time.
One may wish to impose a static process to brain function but the way the process is set up is far more interesting. The body clock starts with the base rate which is the base frequency of the specific creature. All brains work the same. That freqeuncy can identify that specific creature, although many will share the same frequency. It is the resulting cluster of amplitudes that specifies individuality. Identifying that requires the collective result which is likened to a symphony.
The power of this process comes from division. The base rate is divided by two per half second for the firing rate of input receptors. It is divided by thirty per half second for the long-term memory process rate. It is divided by 900 per half second for the short-term human memory process rate. Then each step of the clock is directed to a pathway. That makes the eye, as an simple example: fire a separate rod or cone on each pathway. Those are not at the same time but rather in order of the clock. This is also how neurons are able to share processes as the clock pulse separates them.
This is also how the brain results in “a consistent perception of the world from fragmented sensory data.” The sensory data is not fragmented it is stepped in a single clock controlled process. It is how all of those individual steps result in a fluid reconstruction of reality in the brain. Like running hundreds of thousands of film cameras at the same time, each starting slightly at different times than the others. The blended result creates the perception of the moment.
“Free Will and Mental Causation: How do conscious mental states lead to physical actions? The relationship between thought and behavior remains deeply debated.” [1]
See #5 FREE WILL WHAT IT IS WHAT IT IS NOT. Feeling is the term humans have given to what the brain displays in reaction without motion. Thought is the term humans have given to the change of a topic mentally. They are just terms given through observational delusion. The process function of the brain is far more interesting than feelings and thoughts.
See [3] ANSWERING THE REDDIT 20 QUESTIONS ABOUT THE BRAIN. Read it all in context and things should start making sense.
*= Actually these are solved.
{1] https://search.brave.com/search?q=what+are+the+top+mysteries+of+the+brain
[2] https://leehempfling.com/featured/the-hard-problem-and-other-awareness-what-it-is-what-it-is-not/
[3] https://leehempfling.com/science/publications/answering-the-reddit-20-questions-about-the-brain/
[4] https://leehempfling.com/enticy-press/the-brain-is-a-wonderful-thing/little-ricci-explains-sleep-and-dreaming-what-they-are-what-they-are-not/
[5] https://leehempfling.com/enticy-press/the-brain-is-a-wonderful-thing/free-will-what-it-is-what-it-is-not/
[6] https://leehempfling.com/TBIAWT/