Department of Social Anthropology, University of Aarhus, Ethnography and Social Anthropology, Nordre Ringgade1, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark.
Neural Netw. 2010 Oct-Nov;23(8-9):1051-9. doi: 10.1016/j.neunet.2010.08.002. Epub 2010 Aug 10.
Recent findings in neuroscience have shown differential patterns in brain activity in response to similar stimuli and activities across cultural and social differences. This calls for a framework to understand how such differences may come to be implemented in brains and neurons. Based on strands of research in social anthropology, we argue that human practices are characterized by particular patterns, and that participating in these patterns orders how people perceive and act in particular group- and context-specific ways. This then leads to a particular patterning of neuronal processes that may be detected using e.g. brain imaging methods. We illustrate this through (a) a classical example of phoneme perception (b) recent work on performance in experimental game play. We then discuss these findings in the light of predictive models of brain function. We argue that a 'culture as patterned practices' approach obviates a rigid nature-culture distinction, avoids the problems involved in conceptualizing 'culture' as a homogenous grouping variable, and suggests that participating as a competent participant in particular practices may affect both the subjective (first person) experience and (third person) objective measures of behavior and brain activity.
神经科学的最新研究发现，在面对相似的刺激和活动时，大脑在不同文化和社会背景下的活动模式存在差异。这就需要一个框架来理解这些差异是如何在大脑和神经元中实现的。基于社会人类学的研究线索，我们认为人类实践具有特定的模式，而参与这些模式则决定了人们以特定的群体和情境特定的方式感知和行动。这进而导致了神经元过程的特定模式化，这些模式化可以使用例如脑成像方法来检测。我们通过（a）音位感知的经典例子和（b）实验游戏表现的最新工作来说明这一点。然后，我们根据大脑功能的预测模型来讨论这些发现。我们认为，“文化作为模式化实践”的方法避免了刚性的自然-文化二分法，避免了将“文化”概念化为同质分组变量所涉及的问题，并表明以特定实践的熟练参与者的身份参与可能会影响主观（第一人称）体验和（第三人称）行为和大脑活动的客观测量。
