It is the question of why physical processes in the brain come with subjective experience, a puzzle that explaining brain functions does not appear to settle.
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Frank Jackson's 1982 thought experiment imagines a color-vision scientist raised in black and white. It asks whether she learns something new on seeing color, a question aimed at physicalism.
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A philosophical zombie is an imagined being physically identical to a human but with no conscious experience. Philosophers use it to test whether physical facts can explain consciousness.
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The binding problem asks how separate brain circuits processing different features produce one unified experience. It is really several distinct problems, and the experiential version remains unsolved.
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Nagel argued that conscious experience is essentially subjective, so physical descriptions of the brain leave out what it is like to be a creature. He did not claim physicalism is false.
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Panpsychism is the view that mind or consciousness is fundamental and widespread in nature. Most versions say the tiniest parts of things have it, not that rocks think.
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Split-brain studies showed that cutting the corpus callosum splits much perception, yet patients act like one person. Whether consciousness itself divides is unresolved.
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Blindsight is the ability of some people with damage to the primary visual cortex to detect or locate stimuli in their blind field without conscious seeing. Its cause and meaning are still debated.
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The mind-body problem asks how mental life relates to physical states. Positions divide mainly into dualism and physicalism, with idealism and several sub-views, and each faces its own difficulty.
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Anesthetics act on specific molecules such as the GABA receptor and alter brain circuits and rhythms. Exactly how this produces unconsciousness and amnesia is not fully settled.
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