Its funny; doing my research on scientists' understanding of consciousness, what I found is that they don't really have any! It always goes back to the philosophers. Why? because they can't give an answer to the nature of consciousness, "not yet anyway," as they like to say.
I found an article that says it all, and way better then I could. so here it is:
In conversation with a devotee of science the other day I pointed out that science does not have a good grasp on consciousness.
(The conversation was carried out in a semi-public forum (viewable if you are on the proprietary platform Facebook). I am thinking to ask him if I can paste it here to share it with a wider audience. I think it is very illustrative of the concerns that those of a scientific persuasion have.)