At the frontier of cultural neuroscience: Introduction to the special issue

Cultural neuroscience is a new, interdisciplinary field bridging cultural psychology, neurosciences and neurogenetics that explains how the neurobiological processes, such as genetic expression and brain function, give rise to cultural values, practices and beliefs as well as how culture shapes neurobiological processes across macro-and micro-time scales. Although the formal study of cultural neuroscience has only recently emerged in the past decade, the question of how culture and biology mutually constitute each other has long been a source of philosophical and scientific curiosity, dating as far back as the 7th century. Nevertheless, the theoretical and empirical tools necessary to make progress in these outstanding questions has only recently become available , providing an unprecedented opportunity for scientists to make novel discoveries concerning the universality and diversity in the dynamic interplay of genes, brain and behavior. There are several events over the past few years that have marked the evolution of cultural neuroscience as a growing field with the foundation to inspire a new generation of researchers dedicated to understanding culture-biology interactions. Notable cultural psychologists have demonstrated a growing interest in understanding how biology may give rise to cultural processes and vice versa by including the topic in the Handbook of Cultural Psychology and several symposia on cultural neuroscience at international cultural psychology meetings, such as Society for Personality and Social Psychology, the Association for Psychological Science and the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology. A handful of smaller research also have played key roles in shaping the agenda for cultural neuroscience research. Cultural scientists trained in anthropology have showed similar interest by hosting a symposium on neuroanthropology at the American Anthropological Association meeting and a stand-alone conference on neuroanthropology at the University of Notre Dame in 2009. Neuroscientists have also demonstrated increasing interest in incorporating cultural theory in the investigation of mind-brain mappings as demonstrated by strong attendance at symposia on cultural neuroscience at the international Organization of Human Brain Mapping meeting-related presentations at the Cognitive Neuroscience Society meeting as well as inclusion of the topic in the Handbook of Social Neuroscience. The relevance of cultural neuroscience research to population mental health has become acknowledged with focus on the topic of culture and the brain at the 2009 World Congress of Cultural Psychiatry conference held in Norcia, Italy as well as inclusion of the topic at a recent NIMH Workshop on Reducing Mental Health Disparities. In 2009, a volume of review articles …