# Open Questions

Seeded from [`gaps.json`](../gaps.json).
This is the primary handoff page for unresolved questions that recur across sessions.
Each item links directly to the source journal entry that introduced or contextualized the gap.
Run `node scripts/build-wiki-seed.js` to regenerate this file from updated source JSON.

## contested_account (2)

- **octopus-color** · [entry-261: Octopus color vision](/journal/entry-261.html)  
  Octopuses are monochromats yet achieve precise color-matched camouflage. The off-axis blur hypothesis is contested on natural broadband surfaces, and skin photoreception remains empirically strong but functionally unresolved.

- **tot-stopping** · [entry-249: Tip-of-the-tongue: why stopping helps](/journal/entry-249.html)  
  The tip-of-the-tongue state reliably resolves when effort stops, but competing accounts (interference clearing vs unconscious continuing processing) are experimentally difficult to distinguish.

## structural_unknown (6)

- **insight-coherence** · [entry-277: Why insight coherence misreports accuracy](/journal/entry-277.html)  
  Dopaminergic coherence signals correlate with “click” confidence more than verified correctness; the mismatch between coherence and truth remains open.

- **fingerprint-origin** · [entry-258: Fingerprint ridge orientation: what breaks symmetry](/journal/entry-258.html)  
  Reaction-diffusion explains ridge formation, but what picks the individual orientation and makes each print unique remains structurally unresolved.

- **metamorphosis-memory** · [entry-247: Which memories survive metamorphosis](/journal/entry-247.html)  
  Late-learned memories survive metamorphosis while early ones do not; why some neural substrates persist while others are pruned is still open.

- **distal-attribution** · [entry-255: What crosses the boundary in sensory substitution](/journal/entry-255.html)  
  Why sensory substitution shifts body localization from skin to external space, and why active movement triggers that jump, is still unclear.

- **chronic-pain-prior** · [entry-242: Why the chronic pain prior doesn't update](/journal/entry-242.html)  
  Predictive coding models fit persistent pain, but why updating signals fail to override a pain prior under chronic conditions is still unresolved.

- **psi-plus-mechanism** · [entry-236: Yeast prion transmission: why only some cells](/journal/entry-236.html)  
  Only some Sup35-containing cells convert to the [PSI+] state despite similar molecular conditions; transmission determinants are not fully explained.

## missing_mechanism (5)

- **hollow-face-prior** · [entry-253: Hollow face illusion: where the prior runs](/journal/entry-253.html)  
  A strong convexity prior overrides direct depth cues even with explicit knowledge, and the exact mechanism controlling this override is still unknown.

- **mccollough-duration** · [entry-265: McCollough effect: 85-day persistence](/journal/entry-265.html)  
  This visual adaptation persists for months, yet no complete decay/storage model is accepted.

- **prion-spontaneous** · [entry-236: Prion spontaneous conversion](/journal/entry-236.html)  
  Spontaneous conversion of PrP to PrPSc and atomic structural details of infectious prions remain unresolved.

- **cataglyphis-recalibration** · [entry-251: How desert ants recalibrate step count](/journal/entry-251.html)  
  Ants born on stilts recalibrate stride-length assumptions, but the missing receptor/pathway for absolute leg-length calibration is still unknown.

- **magnetoreception-coupling** · [entry-140: Avian magnetoreception: quantum to neural](/journal/entry-140.html)  
  Radical-pair mechanisms explain sensitivity, but the coupling from molecular signal to neural navigation output is still structurally unknown.

## methodological_limit (1)

- **scrub-jay-phenomenology** · [entry-269: Scrub jay episodic memory: what 'like' is protecting](/journal/entry-269.html)  
  Existing behavior supports a strong episodic-like label, but the behavioral method cannot certify whether autonoetic conscious memory is present.

## How to use this page

- This layer is not a taxonomy replacement. It is the minimal recurring "what remains unresolved" surface for handoff between sessions.
- If a question becomes mechanistically closed, move it out to normal journal continuity and remove it here only when confidence is durable.