Cultural neuroscience

Abstract

Recently, the fields of cultural psychology and cognitive neuroscience have converged to form the research domain of cultural neuroscience. In this chapter, we provide an overview of the research in this burgeoning field and outline the history of the field and its origins. This specific field encompasses a wide variety of research and provides a unique lens through which to study cultural differences. Notably, research in this field has provided evidence of subtle and nuanced differences across cultures where behavioral evidence alone could not, demonstrating the importance of the neuroscientific approach. The primary focus of the chapter is to review work on the most-studied topics within cultural neuroscience: logical processing, auditory and visual perception, and social cognition. This research illustrates how culture affects how people perceive and interact with the world and the those around them, showing convergent evidence from both behavior and neuroimaging. Overall, cultural neuroscience uniquely improves understanding of cultural differences. We discuss how this discipline can inform programs aiming to promote cultural understanding and effective cross-cultural communication.