Concerns about cultural neurosciences: a critical analysis

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Anthropology
• Psychology

Background:

• Neuroscience research on cultural phenomena using functional MRI has grown significantly over the last decade.
• This field, known as cultural neuroscience (CN), often implies concepts of culture without explicit discussion.
• A critical examination of these underlying cultural concepts is necessary for the field's foundation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the conceptualization of culture within cultural neuroscience research.
• To identify and critique the prevailing models of culture used in fMRI studies.
• To advocate for a more nuanced and explicit discussion of culture in CN.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review of 40 functional MRI studies in cultural neuroscience.
• Extraction and analysis of two main reasoning strands regarding culture.
• Critical evaluation of the underlying assumptions about culture in the selected studies.

Main Results:

• Identified two primary models: one focusing on universal mechanisms of cultural formation, the other on inter-group differences.
• Both identified models tend to represent culture as a static and inflexible set of traits.
• These simplified models may obscure the dynamic and complex nature of culture.

Conclusions:

• The current understanding of culture in CN is overly rigid and potentially evaluative.
• Explicit debate on the conceptualization of culture is crucial for the advancement of cultural neuroscience.
• A more flexible and less evaluative approach to culture is needed for robust CN research.