Cultural Neuroscience p1 (Shinobu Kitayama), 2018 FPR-McGill Social & Cultural Neuroscience Workshop

Cultural Neuroscience: Linking Context to Genes and the Brain, Part 1
Abstract
The study of culture in psychology has come of age. Over the last few decades, many researchers have explored cultural pluralism - the hypothesis that there are multiple equilibriums in human cultural adaptation while relying on epistemological positivism - a set of scientific methods employed to evaluate claims made on different cultures. One primary domain of interest has been a macroscopic comparison between (relatively interdependent) East and (relatively independent) West. In my talk, I will discuss three core themes of the field and put forward new questions that have emerged on the horizon. Specifically, the success of the cultural research in psychology was initially anchored in (i) an experimental approach to document cultural variations in mentality. Subsequently, it has been reinforced by both (ii) an effort to identify situational, historical, ecological, and, more recently, evolutionary forces that shape the contemporary cultural variations in mentality and (iii) the adoption of neuroscience methods to assess the “depth” of cultural influences on mentality. Now, the field is poised to address new questions on the biological mechanisms that are recruited to support culture, including neuroplasticity, gene x culture co-evolution, and epigenetic pathways of socio-cultural adaptation. Our recent empirical work addressing a gene x culture interaction that is observed in regionally specific brain volume and cortical thickness will be discussed.
Biographical Note
Shinobu Kitayama, PhD, is Robert B. Zajonc Collegiate Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan. His research focuses on cultural variations in the self and certain cognitive, emotional, and motivational processes that are linked to it. In recent years, he has contributed to a newly emerging field of cultural neuroscience by investigating the dynamic, recursive interaction between culture and the brain. He is also interested in genetic and epigenetic mechanisms in understanding human culture. He previously taught at several institutions including the University of Oregon, Kyoto University, Stanford University, and the University of Chicago. He is currently serving as Editor-in-Chief of a leading journal in social psychology (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology-Attitudes and Social Cognition). He was an elected Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in Behavioral Sciences (1995-1996 and 2007-2008), received a Guggenheim Fellowship (2010-2011), held the Earnest Hilgard Visiting Professorship at Stanford (2011), and has been inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2011).
The FPR-McGill workshop, which took place on 13-17 Aug 2018, provided an overview of core topics and recent developments in social and cultural neuroscience research in order to promote cross-disciplinary collaboration in global mental health. Learn more at thefpr.org and mcgill.ca/tcpsych.