Neuroculture

NeuroCulture is the relation between the sciences that study the functioning of the brain and culture. We understanding the latter as the knowledge, history, habits, ideas and values of the human race, and their manifestations in any form of expression: social, scientific, artistic, philosophical, moral or religious, etc.

Drawing by Santiago Ramon y Cajal of two types of Golgi-stained neurons from the cerebellum of a pigeon

The basis of NeuroCulture is that everything a human being creates is generated in the brain, from the most primary functions resulting from millions of years of evolution, to superior expressions, like art, religious or scientific thinking. Thus, the link that relates the biological functioning of the brain to the results of its processes creates a method of explaining how human beings respond to their environment in every possible way.

The study of human beings has been analysed by many scientific and humanistic branches of knowledge, such as philosophy, sociology, anthropology, psychology, theology, ethics, and jurisprudence. The understanding we have nowadays of the way the brain works makes it impossible for these disciplines to ignore that it is the brain that creates and organizes thoughts, which lead to data, deductions, structures, laws and, ultimately, the content that conforms them.

Neuroscience, together with the humanistic and scientific disciplines, creates a new level of study that leads to a reassessment of some of its fields of study and, of course, the enrichment of all of them.

According to this approach, in which Neuroscience joins the rest of the humanistic and scientific disciplines, new related terms appear. For example, we have NeuroEconomy, NeuroPhilosophy, NeuroEthics, NeuroTheology, NeuroEsthetics, NeuroCognition or NeuroEducation. Any area of study is prone to be related to Neuroscience.

Regardless of the cultural society we are dealing with, the functioning of the brain has characteristics that are common to every society and race on the Earth. These characteristics have been confirmed through magnetic resonance imaging and it has been verified that emotions and feelings related to morals, love, pleasure, etc., activate the same brain areas whatever the society or race we are dealing with. The only differences are due to the way diverse cultures interpret the facts, ways of life or moral beliefs in one way or another

See also

• Behavioural genetics
• Behavioral neuroscience
• Biocultural evolution
• Human behavioral ecology
• Human genetic variation
• Neuroanthropology
• Sociocultural evolution
• Social neuroscience
• Race, Evolution, and Behavior: A Life History Perspective

References

• Mora, Francisco (2007). [Francisco Mora Neuroculture, one culture based in the brain]. Alianza Editorial. pp. 190. ISBN 978-84-206-4795-1. Francisco Mora. 

• Churchland, Patricia. [Patricia Churchland Neurophilosophy: Toward a Unified Science of the Mind-Brain]. Patricia Churchland. 

• Johnson, George. [George Johnson God Is in the Dendrites Can "neurotheology" bridge the gap between religion and science?]. George Johnson. 

• Ambady, N. & Bharucha, J.J. (2009). Culture and the brain. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18, 342-345.

External links

• Chiao & Ambady, Cultural neuroscience
• Han & Northoff, Transcultural neuroimaging
• Corante: web site of neuroscience
• Mind Hacks: breaking news of neuroscience
• Neuroculture