Best way to understand neurons -> behavior? Options

[Palaver87]

Neuroscience grad student here, trying to figure out how to "solve the brain" like really. This may be a pretty wishy-washy question, but what do you guys think is the best way to understand how many individual neurons produce behavior especially in humans/primates? There is fMRI, but that only seems to show us where activation occurs and now how the individuals neurons are working. There is electrophysiology, but the brain is composed of billions of neurons, and I feel like most spend a lifetime just studying a small circuit. Electrophysiology (perhaps calcium imaging or multielectrode arrays) + machine learning is the best I can come up with. A professor told me that I should look at simple model organisms and extrapolate to humans. Not sure if you really need 1000 people working from cellular to imaging for many years to figure it out :-/

[Flex]

The brain to me is no more conscious that the rest of the body. Sure it may be the central hub of our awareness, but as far as the functionality of the body is concerned, I am less convinced. It is just like a bee hive. No one bee is conscious of the whole, each unit is only aware of its direct surroundings, yet the colony functions as a single entity. With enough individual proximal connections, you can build a network of awareness, which is much more encompassing and dynamic.