Cultural neuroscience: ideas worth knowing

Abstract

Background: Neuroscience is now promising significant advances in medical practice, such that it can improve the art and science of personalized medicine. A new discipline of cultural neuroscience is now forming, and few clinicians, researchers or educators are aware of it.

Aims: To set out a brief synopsis of cultural neuroscience.

Methods: A narrative, nonsystematic, review of experts on cultural psychiatry and cultural neuroscience.

Results: Cultural neuroscience proposes that culture and biology have co-evolved with mutually beneficial affordances inhuman abilities that promote positive selection that help people to flourish. Neuroscience can support and improve cultural interventions when applied in a pan-diagnostic manner to culturally specific groups, ethnic minorities, and migrants.

Conclusions: Cultural neuroscience is an exciting new discipline with the potential for clinical benefit. Cultural psychiatry can advance in this direction, and at the same time offer a critique of the culture of neuroscience.

Keywords:

• Culture
• psychiatry
• neuroscience
• innovations

View correction statement:

Notice of duplicate publication: Conference proceedings of the 4th Masterclass Psychiatry: Transcultural Psychiatry – Diagnostics and Treatment, Luleå Sweden, 22-23 February 2018 (Region Norrbotten in collaboration with the Maudsley Hospital and Tavistock Clinic London)

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.