Discovering the relationship between the brain and the mind is one of greatest challenges that scientists face in the 21st century. The implications of such a discovery will radically change our conception of what it means to be a conscious being, and will have radical effects on neuroscience, metaphysics, judicial law — and psychology. Even the concept that humans act with free will, an idea that is central to our conception of who we are, may turn out be false.

The relationship between mind and brain is currently the subject of great debate. The conventional view dates back to 17th-century French philosopher René Descartes and his major work,Discourse on the Method, and is known as Cartesian Dualism in his honor. Descartes separated the mind from the body with his famous statement “I think, therefore I am,” a phrase known as “the cogito” after the Latin translation “Cogito, ergo sum.” Descartes laid the foundation for the way that we usually think of ourselves, today — that our mind is separate from the matter of our bodies, and it’s the source of our feelings, decision making capabilities, and all of the aspects that make us who we are. Our mind, a kind of indefinable “ghost in the machine,” gives the orders, and the subservient brain simply makes our bodies carry them out.

How did we get to this point? Experiments using fMRI scanners allow neuroscientists to measure activity in the brain, which correlates to thoughts and emotions in human subjects. That in itself just shows correlation, and correlation doesn’t rule out a mind-to-brain causal system. But increasingly more accurate brain scans have shown that there is activity in the relevant part of the brain before the subject of the experiment is conscious of these thoughts and emotions. So the thought cannot be causing the brain activity, because the brain activity occurs before the thought. The idea that we are willing an action to happen — that we have conscious thought — is an illusion. It was actually your brain that made you do it.

It’s possible that the collective system may take on some of the controlling properties that we now attribute to the mind. “There is an absolute necessity for Emergence to occur to control this teeming, seething system that is going on at another level,” writes Gazzaniga. This idea, however, is controversial among neuroscientists, and may even border on scientific heresy.

But neuroscience would not get very far without psychology to guide it, says Munger, writing in Cognitive Daily: “Psychologists have identified many phenomena for which neuroscientists have yet to find analogous activity in the brain. Neuroscientists can use research like this to guide their work…Together, psychology and neuroscience can help us all understand how the brain shapes behaviour,” Munger says.

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