Evidence only supports the idea of nerve cells as physiological signal transducers. Yet so-called scientists religiously cling to the concept of neurons as the locus of mentation and even consciousness. Why is that?
Beyond misattribution and facilely mistaking coincidence for cause, the obsessive interest in neurons as the source of the mind is grounded in the false faith of matterism: that matter is the be-all and end-all of reality. Matterism has been thoroughly scientifically discredited, as fulsomely explained in my Spokes of the Wheel book set. The simplest disproof of matterism is the universal acknowledgement in physics that matter is made of energy, and energy is nothing more than an idea.
More germane is that matterism, regardless of cell type, cannot explain how mentation is possible in organisms lacking any physiology for such functioning, including in plants, fungi, protists, innumerable early-evolved animals, and microbes, including viruses. Every life form must be aware of its environment to function, notably to discriminate and make decisions, which even proteins do.
Regarding misattribution, neurons are mere minions for glia cells, such as astrocytes, which manage neural organization and activity for the duration of nerve cell life. Glia are the physiological correlate for mentation (but are not the source of mentation).
The reason for neuro-pseudoscience is that energyism as a scientific paradigm is too subtly complex for the simple-minded who nonetheless seek to suss Nature. Hence neurobiologists claim finding the physical root of the mind when all they have done is propagate a pathetic religion.
For those wanting to know more about intelligence physiology, see Spokes 4: The Ecology of Humans.