Mental States Versus Physical Substrates
What are the benefits specific to seeing the mind as mental states, rather than as a physical substrate?


I'm not convinced that buddhism sees the mind exclusively in terms of mental states, but rather taking both materialism and mental states into account. For instance, dependent origination details the relationship between physical properties and mental phenomena.

I guess it may seem that only mental states are relevant for buddhism while one reads those parts of abhidamma that deals with examining these things.

(On a side note, psychology is a field consisting of a great deal of different disciplines, besides neuroscience. Concepts like mental states are therefore also valid for psychological research).