Question: Do you think there is a neurological explanation for consciousness? And if so, do you think we will be able to have a theory in the future for why we are such complex organisms in terms of being consciously aware and higher order thinking?

David McGonigle answered on 12 Mar 2021:

Hi again Anastacia…and another tough question! Even though I don’t work on this directly, it’s probably the idea or question in neuroscience that I’ve thought about most over my career so far. When I was at Uni studying for my degree, I subscribed to ‘The Journal of Consciousness Studies’, which published articles that explored this question. It was, to be honest, a pretty hard read at times, but one thing I soon realised was that *no-one* seemed able to actually agree on what ‘consciousness’ was in the first place. To add insult to injury, *everyone* seemed to have a different explanation or theory to explain it! My current take on this question is inspired by a philosopher called Dan Dennett, whom I was lucky enough to host when he visited the lab where I did my PhD: basically, I do believe we can determine what locations and ‘flavours’ of brain information processing underly consciousness – but why they produce this, and how to gain access to the pure moment-to-monent experience of someone else’s thoughts? No – that, I’m pretty sure, will always remain elusive.