The Sociocultural Brain: A Cultural Neuroscience Approach to Human Nature

305 Pages·2017·11.84 MB·English

by  HAN

The Sociocultural Brain

The Sociocultural Brain
A cultural neuroscience
approach to human nature
Shihui Han
1
1
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Preface
People from different cultures have evolved distinct patterns of behavior that
can be observed widely in daily life. What drives the cultural diversity of human
behavior? Anthropologists and sociologists have extensively documented the
diversity of human behavior and developed theories to explain their observa-
tions from a macroscopic perspective. Neuroscientists have provided a large
body of empirical findings that help us to understand micro- (e.g., cellular
and genetic) mechanisms of animal behavior. Can we understand the cultural
diversity of human behavior from a neuroscientific perspective? During the
last decade, a new approach to the examination of cultural diversity of human
behavior emerged through the integration of cultural psychology, cognitive
neuroscience, and other related research fields. Cultural psychologists investi-
gate behavioral diversity by exploring the underlying psychological traits and
cognitive/ affective processes. Cognitive neuroscientists employ brain- imaging
techniques to investigate neural underpinnings of human cognition and emo-
tion, as well as neural correlates of behavior. The integration of cultural psy-
chology and cognitive neuroscience has taken advantage of elegant behavioral
paradigms and theoretical frameworks developed by cultural psychologists,
as well as state- of- the- art brain imaging techniques (e.g., functional magnetic
resonance imaging and event- related brain potential) from cognitive neurosci-
ence, and this has prompted the emergence of cultural neuroscience.
Cultural neuroscience investigates many interesting and important questions
regarding human behavior and the brain from a cultural perspective. For exam-
ple, to what degree does cultural diversity of behavior reflect distinct functional
organization of the brain? Do cultural experiences shape neural mechanisms
involved in cognitive tasks that are commonly performed by people in differ-
ent sociocultural environments? Can brain activity be changed by short- term
cultural experiences? Does the brain process culturally familiar and unfamiliar
information in the same way? How do cultural experiences interact with genes
to influence brain functional organization? Additionally, cultural neuroscience
studies raise general questions related to the brain and culture. What is the
nature of the human brain? Is it a pure biological or a biosocial organ? What is
the nature of culture? Is it a pure social or sociobiological construction?
This book does not aim to answer all these questions; however, given the
increasing number of cultural neuroscience studies that have examined the
vi Preface
aforementioned issues and reported interesting empirical findings, I believe
that now is the right time to provide an overview of the methods and findings
of cultural neuroscience research during the last 10 to 15 years, which have
substantially enriched our knowledge about the relationship between culture
and the functional organization of the human brain. These findings suggest that
brain functional organization is shaped by sociocultural experiences to guide
our behaviors to fit into a specific sociocultural environment. In particular,
recent cultural neuroscience studies have shown evidence that East Asian and
Western cultures produce significant influences on neural activities involved
in multiple cognitive/ affective processes such as perception, attention, mental
attribution, self- reflection, and emotion regulation. Genes also interact with
a specific cultural trait to modulate the functional organization of the human
brain. By summarizing recent cultural neuroscience findings, the book aims to
provide a new perspective on human brain functional organization by high-
lighting the role of human sociocultural experience and its interaction with
genes in shaping the human brain and behavior.
There are 9 chapters in this book. Chapter 1 provides a brief overview of cul-
tural differences in human behavior by comparing and contrasting examples
of individuals’ behaviors in East Asian and Western societies. It reviews the
concept of culture that emphasizes its two key components—s hared beliefs and
behavioral scripts— and cross- cultural psychological findings that reveals dif-
ferences in multiple cognitive and affective processes between individuals in
East Asian and Western cultures. It also gives an overview of the short history
of cultural neuroscience research.
Chapter 2 examines brain activity that is engaged in differential process-
ing of culturally familiar and unfamiliar information by reviewing functional
magnetic resonance imaging and event- related potential studies of neural
activity involved in the processing of gesture, music, brand, and religious
knowledge.
Chapter 3 introduces a theoretical framework for understanding the rela-
tionship between sociocultural experiences and cognition, and it provides evi-
dence for differences in brain activity between East Asian and Western cultures
involved in cognitive processes related to perception, attention, memory, cau-
sality judgment, mathematical operation, semantic relationship, and decision
making. Further, it discusses neural bases for a cultural preference for context-
independent or context- dependent strategies of cognition.
Chapter 4 examines the difference in self- concept between Western and East
Asian cultures and behavioral and brain- imaging findings that have uncovered
the neural mechanisms underlying self- face recognition and self-r eflection in
Western and East Asian cultures.
Preface vii
Chapter 5 presents cross- cultural neuroimaging studies of neural processes
underlying social interactions that reveal how East Asian and Western cultural
experiences influence specific cognitive and neural strategies in perception of
face and expression, empathy for others’ emotional states, regulation of emo-
tion, understanding others’ beliefs, perception of others’ social status, and pro-
cessing of social feedback.
Chapter 6 examines how temporary shifts of a cultural knowledge system
toward independence or interdependence modulates brain activities involved
in pain- related sensory processing, visual perception, self- face recognition and
self- reflection, monetary reward, empathy, and a resting state. These findings
are discussed in terms of a causal relationship between cultural belief/ value and
functional organization of the human brain.
Chapter 7 reviews empirical findings that allow consideration of biological
and environmental influences on human behavior from an evolutionary per-
spective (e.g., gene- culture coevolution) and from a perspective of individual
development (e.g., gene-c ulture interaction). Moreover, it introduces a cul-
tural neuroscience approach to uncovering genetic influences on the coupling
of brain activity and cultural traits by presenting studies that examined how
serotonin transporter functional polymorphism and the oxytocin receptor
gene moderate the association between interdependence and brain activities
involved in self- reflection and empathy.
Chapter 8, based on cultural neuroscience findings, introduces a culture–
behavior– brain (CBB)- loop model of human development, which posits that
culture shapes the brain by contextualizing behavior, and the brain fits and
modifies culture via behavioral influences. Moreover, genes provide a funda-
mental basis for and interact with the CBB loop at both individual and popu-
lation levels. This model aims to advance our understanding of the dynamic
relationships between culture, behavior, and the brain.
Chapter 9 discusses the implications of cultural neuroscience findings for
understanding the biosocial nature of the human brain and the sociobiological
nature of culture. It also examines how cultural neuroscience findings help us
to rethink strategies of school education, cross-c ultural communication, and
clinical treatment of neuropsychological mental disorders in different cultures.
This book draws on a number of relevant articles, chapters, and books. I am
grateful to the researchers who have contributed to the development of cul-
tural neuroscience by conducting empirical studies and developing theoretical
frameworks. It would have been impossible to have this book published without
the findings of the cultural neuroscience studies. My special thanks go to Prof.
Ying Zhu, who initiated cross- cultural brain- imaging research in China and has
been working with me since 2001. My special thanks go also to post doc fellows,
viii Preface
graduate, and undergraduate students who worked with me during the last 10
years, including Jie Sui, Lihua Mao, Yina Ma, Yan Mu, Jianqiao Ge, Chenbo
Wang, Feng Sheng, Siyang Luo, Zhenhao Shi, Yi Liu, Moritz de Greck, Sook-
Lei Liew, Meghan Meyer, Michael Varnum, Kate Woodcock, John Freeman,
and others. I am most grateful to Prof. Sik Hung Ng, Yi Rao, Georg Northoff,
Shinobu Kitayama, Andreas Roepstorff, Michele Gelfand, Kai Vogeley, and
Ernst Poppel for our exciting discussions and productive cooperation. I owe
a great deal to Prof. Glyn Humphreys and Jane Riddoch, whom I have been
working with since 1996. They hosted me as a visiting professor in 2015 and
2016 at the University of Oxford, where I finished this book. Prof. Jane Riddoch
also helped by proofreading all chapters of this book. I thank Weiqiang Wang
for providing Figure 1.2. Finally, I am most grateful to my wife Lijuan Liu, who
supports my research all the time.
I wish to thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Projects
31421003; 31661143039; 31470986) for funding support of my research on the
relationship between culture and the brain, and the Leverhulme Trust that sup-
ported my visit to the University of Oxford in 2015 and 2016, when I was able
to devote myself to the writing of this book.
Oxford, UK
June 2016
Table of Contents
List of Abbreviations xi
1 Cultural diversity: From behavior to mind and brain 1
Diverse human behaviors 1
Culture: From observation to concept 7
Behind cultural differences in behavior: Mental processes 12
Behind cultural differences in mind: Brain activity 18
Cultural neuroscience 22
2 Neural processes of culturally familiar information 26
Cultural learning 26
Gesture 29
Music 33
Brand 40
Religious knowledge 46
3 Cultural differences in non- social neural processes 51
Neural correlates of cognition: Cultural universality and cultural
diversity 51
Visual perception and attention 53
Memory 63
Causal judgments 64
Math 68
Semantic relationship 71
Decision making 74
Culture and neurocognitive style 76
4 Cultural differences in neurocognitive processing of the self 79
Culture and self- concept 79
Cultural differences in neurocognitive processing of self- face 83
Cultural differences in neurocognitive processing during
self- reflection 92
Religious belief and neural correlates of self- reflection 100
Neural roots of culturally specific self- concept and behavior 102
5 Cultural differences in neurocognitive processing of others 105
Social interaction in cultural contexts 105
Face 107
Facial expression 111