Grand challenges for systems neuroscience: perspectives and opportunities

Abstract

Systems neuroscience seeks to uncover how diverse neuronal populations and distributed neural types, circuits, and regions in the brain give rise to perception, learning, emotion, cognition, and behavior, and how dysfunction at any of these levels contributes to neurological and psychiatric disorders. The field has rapidly expanded from single-cell studies to large-scale, multimodal interrogation and manipulation of brain-wide activity, creating unprecedented opportunities alongside major conceptual and technical challenges. Systems neuroscience is at a pivotal moment, with advances in basic, translational, and clinical research converging to deepen understanding of how neural activity generates mental life.