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7 - Cultural Priming Effects and the Human Brain

from Section 2 - The Situated Brain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2020

By
Shihui Han  and
Georg Northoff
Edited by
Laurence J. Kirmayer ,
Carol M. Worthman ,
Shinobu Kitayama ,
Robert Lemelson  and
Constance A. Cummings
Laurence J. Kirmayer
Affiliation:
McGill University, Montréal
Carol M. Worthman
Affiliation:
Emory University, Atlanta
Shinobu Kitayama
Affiliation:
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Robert Lemelson
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Constance A. Cummings
Affiliation:
The Foundation for Psychocultural Research
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Summary

Culture as shared values/beliefs and behavioral scripts not only influences human behavior and cognition but modulates the underlying brain activity as well. Cultural impacts on the human brain have been investigated by cultural neuroscience research that examines cultural group differences in brain activities involved in specific cognitive/affective processes. The findings, however, do not allow inference of causal relationships between specific cultural values/beliefs and brain activity. Cultural priming approach tests how brain activities underlying various cognitive/affective processes are modulated by recent exposure to specific cultural symbols or activation of specific cultural values/beliefs. Increasing evidence indicates that cultural priming leads to subsequent changes of brain activities in response to perception, attention, reward, self-reflection, etc. The findings suggest that culture provides a key frame in which the human brain develops and functions to mediate multiple cognitive and affective processes.

Keywords

cultural neuroscienceprimingfMRIERPcognitionaffect
Type
Chapter
Information
Culture, Mind, and Brain
Emerging Concepts, Models, and Applications
 , pp. 223 - 243
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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