Cultural Neuroscience

Editorial

At the frontier of cultural neuroscience:

Introduction to the special issue

Cultural neuroscience is a new, interdisciplinary field bridging cultural psychology, neurosciences and neurogenetics that explains how the neurobiological processes, such as genetic expression and brain function, give rise to cultural values, practices and beliefs as well as how culture shapes neurobiological processes across macro- and micro-time scales. Although the formal study of cultural neuroscience has only recently emerged in the past decade, the question of how culture and biology mutually constitute each other has long been a source of philosophical and scientific curiosity, dating as far back as the 7th century. Nevertheless, the theoretical and empirical tools necessary to make progress in these outstanding questions has only recently become available, providing an unprecedented opportunity for scientists to make novel discoveries concerning the universality and diversity in the dynamic interplay of genes, brain and behavior.

For a list of all the papers that appeared in the special edition go to:

http://scan.oxfordjournals.org/content/5/2-3.toc