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Integrating brain, cognition and culture

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Abstract

Why should there now appear a journal devoted to integrating cognition and culture? We argue that new methods for examining the origin of brain networks that shape the developing mind provide the basis for such integration. These methods include imaging the human brain at rest or when performing tasks and examining individual differences in network efficiency by studying people with different forms of critical genes. In this article we outline a framework for studying attention, and then apply it to the study of language and number processing. Each domain illustrates how cultural differences influence the brain networks involved in cognition. In each case caregivers often serve as representative of the culture in helping to shape the brain.

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  1. Department of Psychology, 1227 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 97403, USA

    Michael I. Posner & Mary K. Rothbart

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  1. Michael I. Posner
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  2. Mary K. Rothbart
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Correspondence to Michael I. Posner.

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This research was supported in part by NIH Grant 060563 to Georgia State University. The authors are grateful to Charo Rueda and BhoomikaKar for their contributions to various parts of this review. We want to thank the referees Drs. Thomas Lachmann and Dr. Chris Olivers for their helpful comments, they improved the accuracy of our article, but should not be held responsible for errors that may remain.

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Posner, M.I., Rothbart, M.K. Integrating brain, cognition and culture. J Cult Cogn Sci 1, 3–15 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41809-017-0001-7

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