Culture And Neural Frames Of Cognition And Communication

Cultural neuroscience combines brain imaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging and event-related brain potentials with methods of social and cultural psychology to investigate whether and how cultures influence the neural mechanisms of perception, attention, emotion, social cognition, and other human cognitive processes. The findings of cultural neuroscience studies improve our understanding of the relation between human brain function and sociocultural contexts and help to reframe the “big question” of nature versus nurture. This book is organized so that two chapters provide general views of the relation between biological evolution, cultural evolution and recent cultural neuroscience studies, while other chapters focus on several aspects of human cognition that have been shown to be strongly influenced by sociocultural factors such as self-concept representation, language processes, emotion, time perception, and decision-making. The main goal of this work is to address how thinking actually takes place and how the underlying neural mechanisms are affected by culture and identity.

Cultural neuroscience combines brain imaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging and event-related brain potentials with methods of social and cultural psychology to investigate whether and how cultures influence the neural mechanisms of perception, attention, emotion, social cognition, and other human cognitive processes. The findings of cultural neuroscience studies improve our understanding of the relation between human brain function and sociocultural contexts and help to reframe the “big question” of nature versus nurture. This book is organized so that two chapters provide general views of the relation between biological evolution, cultural evolution and recent cultural neuroscience studies, while other chapters focus on several aspects of human cognition that have been shown to be strongly influenced by sociocultural factors such as self-concept representation, language processes, emotion, time perception, and decision-making. The main goal of this work is to address how thinking actually takes place and how the underlying neural mechanisms are affected by culture and identity.

Social Communication Development and Disorders examines the integrated development of social, linguistic, and cognitive functions. It provides evidence-based clinical information on effective assessment and intervention for individuals with social communication disorders. The second edition of this standout text is fully updated to reflect up-to-date research evidence and the application of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (Children and Youth version), and places a strong focus on cultural differences in social communication and extended developmental information from birth to adulthood. Part 1 explores topics including theoretical perspectives on social communication, neuroscience of social communication and social cognitive, social emotional, and social communication development. Part 2 covers social pragmatic communication disorder and associated disorders such as language impairment, autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit disorder and disruptive behavior disorder. Chapters feature case studies, incidence/prevalence estimates, DSM-5 definitions, referral guidelines, recommended assessment and intervention practices, as well as a list of clinical and instructional resources. This comprehensive and practical text is essential reading for both undergraduate and graduate students of communication sciences, speech and language disorders, as well as speech-language pathology. It is also an excellent reference for professionals working with individuals with social competence or social communication problems, including speech-language pathologists, teachers, psychologists, social workers, counsellors, school nurses, behavioral therapists, and occupational therapists.

Social Cognition in Schizophrenia: From Evidence to Treatment provides a firm grounding in the theory and research of normal social cognition, builds on this base to describe how social cognition appears to be dysfunctional in schizophrenia, and explains how this dysfunction might be ameliorated.

There is an odd contradiction at the heart of language and culture learning: Language and culture are, so to speak, two sides of a single coin—language reflects the thinking, values and worldview of its speakers. Despite this, there is a persistent split between language and culture in the classroom. Foreign language pedagogy is often conceptualized in terms of gaining knowledge and practicing skills, while cultural learning goals are often conceptualized in abstract terms, such as awareness or criticality. This book helps resolve this dilemma. Informed by brain and mind sciences, its core message is that language and culture learning can both be seen as a single, interrelated process—the embodiment of dynamic systems of meaning into the intuitive mind. This deep learning process is detailed in the form of the Developmental Model of Linguaculture Learning (DMLL). Grounded in dynamic skill theory, the DMLL describes four developmental levels of language and culture learning, which represents a subtle, yet important shift in language and culture pedagogy. Rather than asking how to add culture into language education, we should be seeking ways to make language and culture learning deeper—more integrated, embodied, experiential and transformational. This book provides a theoretical approach, including practical examples, for doing so.

Our age is characterized by global access to information, places and cultures: we can gain more and more knowledge about "the others": other people and their cultures by "indirect knowledge" — learning about them via the global information net assisted by electronic and other high-tech communication channels, as well as by "direct knowledge": personally visiting various parts of the world and meeting local people in their own natural and social environments. East and West, two major worlds of aspirations, cultures, world-views, theoretical and practical approaches to life and death, have come closer by personal experiences of both Westerners and Easterners. But do we really understand the similarities and differences between the cultural-cognitive-behavioural-emotional patterns of the East and the West, with special regard to their neurobiological underpinnings in the human brain? The contents of this book focus on cultural patterns and cognitive patterns in the East and West, with special regard to those patterns which are determined by our natural-genetic endownments in contrast to those patterns which are influenced by our cultural ("East–West") influences, and within this context a unique flavour is given to the "good life" aspects of adapting to this global community.

After American Studies is a timely critique of national and transnational approaches to community, and their forms of belonging and trans/patriotisms. Using reports in multicultural psychology and cultural neuroscience to interpret an array of cultural forms—including literature, art, film, advertising, search engines, urban planning, museum artifacts, visa policy, public education, and ostensibly non-state media—the argument fills a gap in contemporary criticism by a focus on what makes cultural canons symbolically effective (or not) for an individual exposed to them. The book makes important points about the limits of transnationalism as a paradigm, evidencing how such approaches often reiterate presumptive and essentialized notions of identity that function as new dimensions of exceptionalism. In response to the shortcomings in trans/national criticism, the final chapter initiates a theoretical consideration of a postgeographic and postcultural form of community (and of cultural analysis).

How is the human brain shaped by our sociocultural experiences? What neural correlates underlie the extraordinary cultural diversity of human behavior? How do our genes interact with sociocultural experiences to moderate human brain functional organization and behavior? This Sociocultural Brain provides a new perspective on human brain functional organization, highlighting the role of human sociocultural experience and its interaction with genes in shaping human brain and behavior. Drawing on cutting edge research from the burgeoning field of cultural neuroscience, it reveals the cross-cultural differences in human brain activity that underlye a multitude of cognitive and affective processes - including visual perception/attention, memory, causal attribution, inference of others’ mental states, self-reflection, and empathy. In addition, it presents studies that integrate brain imaging and cultural priming to explore the causal relationship between culture and brain functional organization. The book ends with a discussion of the implications of cultural neuroscience findings for understanding the nature of human brain and culture, as well as the implications for education, cross-cultural communication and conflict, and the clinical treatment of mental disorders.