CMB NETWORK FALL MEETING, OCTOBER 20–22, 2022

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2022

 
1:30–1:50 Welcome: Introduction from CMB Meeting Host and Moderator (20 mins) Robert Lemelson
SESSION 1: HOT TOPICS (* = includes abstract in sidebar) Moderator: Robert Lemelson
1:50–2:00 The Perceptual Motor Hypothesis* Dietrich Stout
2:00–2:10 Prison Brain: The Next Frontier in NeuroLaw for Criminal Justice Reform* Sally Seraphin
2:00–2:10 SEAMH Initiative* Kathy Trang & Seinenu Thein-Lemelson
2:20–2:40 Breakout (20 mins)
2:40–2:45 Summary (5 mins)
2:45–3:00 COFFEE BREAK
3:00–3:10 Critical Empathy* Chikako Ozawa-de Silva
3:10–3:20 Is There an Avatar Faculty?* Jeff Snodgrass
3:20–3:30 The Cultivation of the Imagination* Michael Lifshitz
3:30–3:40 What Are We Polarized About? Samuel Veissière
3:40–3:50 Title TBD Kathy Trang, Maria Gendron
3:50–4:10 Breakout (20 mins): Ask each person to name a discussion point from their hot topics for breakout groups
4:10–4:15 Summary (5 mins)
4:15–6:00 Patio Gathering, for those who wish
6:30 DINNER AT PLATEIA RESTAURANT

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2022

SESSION 1, Cont’d: HOT TOPICS Moderator: Chikako Ozawa-de Silva
9:00–9:10 A Study of “the Rest” Shinobu Kitayama
9:10–9:20 Rethinking the Ecology of Mind in the Light of Contemporary 4E Cognitive Science* Laurence Kirmayer
9:20–9:30 Action Landscapes and Social Homeostasis* Carol Worthman
9:30–9:40 How Can We Bring the Neuro- and Social Sciences Together? Daniel Lende
9:40–10:00 Breakout (20 mins)
10:00–10:15 Summary and Emergent Themes (15 mins)
10:15–10:30 COFFEE BREAK
10:30–12:00 SESSION 2: Being Interdisciplinary (A. Wilson, 2022): Models, Concepts, and Practices) Moderator: Dietrich Stout
  Concepts [follows Western format for empirical inquiry]

1.     System of interest

2.     Articulate theory

3.     Draw testable hypotheses and identify methods to test

4.     What about qualitative and other modes of inquiry?

Superconcepts: Transferrable concepts that can cross disciplines. What are our superconcepts?

Examples from Wilson:

  • Systems (scales, hierarchies)
  • Accounts (and conservation laws)
  • Hierarchy (scales)
  • Probabilities (and uncertainty)
  • Entropy
  • Equilibrium (entropy, constraints, …)
  • Optimization
  • Non-linearity, dynamics, (multiple equilibria, phase transitions, path dependence)
  • Evolution, DNA, initial conditions
  • Lotka-Volterra-Richardson dynamics

Research on vs. research for: What’s the difference? How do we prioritize?

12:00–1:30 LUNCH BREAK

 

  SESSION 3: Exercises building on our hot topics  
1:30–3:00 Part 1
  Four rounds (total) for breakout discussions comprising 30 mins exercise, 15 mins share-in.

Round 1 – Moderator: Kathy Trang

  • How would you describe your research to a policymaker (who was not versed in the issue?)
  • Outline the ecosystem of research and associated funding in the field/s of your own research.

Round 2 – Moderator: Laurence Kirmayer

  • What are the main barriers to progress on your core interest?
  • How could the ecosystem be changed to address barriers to insight and innovation, perhaps reframe the questions and process of research?
3:00–3:15 COFFEE BREAK
3:15–4:45 Part 2
  Round 3 – Moderator: Shinobu Kitayama

  • How might the methods or results of your research be applied in another discipline?
  • Are there any concepts from that discipline that could have roles as superconcepts?

Round 4 – Moderator: Michael Lifshitz

  • For a research problem of interest, perhaps one bigger than the one you are working on, how would you put a team together?

Building on previous rounds, how would we change how (and why?) research is done, by whom, and for whom? What would decolonized, inclusive research look like?

4:45–5:00 Finalize what members want to discuss on Day 3 (continuing the network? training and mentoring? publications?)
5:00–6:00 Patio Gathering, for those who wish
6:30 Dinner at Rob and Seinenu’s [meet in lobby at 5:45pm]

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2022

  SESSION 4: Interdisciplinarity and Thinking About the Future / Keeping the Network Going / How Can We Make a Difference / Do Better? / What Constitutes Inclusive? (with suggested discussants) Moderator: Jeff Snodgrass
9:00–10:30
  • Barriers and Affordances in Training & Mentoring: Kathy and Seinenu
  • Research & Collaboration: Chikako and Dietz
  • Inclusiveness: Shinobu and Jeff
  • Public Outreach: Sally and Chikako
  • Publication: Daniel and Michael
  • Networks: Laurence and Sam
10:30–10:45 COFFEE BREAK
10:45–12:30 Public outreach and publications Moderator: Daniel Lende
12:30–2:00 LUNCH BREAK
2:00–3:45 Inclusiveness, other topics TBD Moderator: Samuel Veissière
3:45–4:00 COFFEE BREAK
4:00–5:00 Network takeaways, other topics TBD Moderator: Carol Worthman
6:30–8:00 Dinner at Skylight Gardens, 1139 Glendon Avenue,  Westwood [meet in lobby at 6:00 to walk to venue]
 
 

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2022

 

Travel day
 

Meeting Logistics

  • Airport Arrival Information

    Exit on the arrivals level (downstairs). For curbside Uber pickups at LAX, select UberBlack or Lux. For Uber X, XL, Comfort, Select, or Pool, walk or shuttle to LAX-it (LA Exit). Look for LAX-it signage in the terminal to identify where lime-green LAX-it shuttles are available on the inside curb. (The outside curb is reserved for private or UberBlack pickups.) After arriving at LAX-it, proceed to the designated pick-up zone for your Lyft, Uber, or Taxi.

SHINOBU KITAYAMA / BURNING QUESTIONS

  1. Cultural evolution

How did different cultural groups and traditions emerge and evolve over the last 10,000 years?

  1. Cultural neuroscience

How does cultural experience shape the network structure of the brain?

What are the mechanisms by which culture influences cognition, emotion, and motivation?

What new contributions will neuroscience research offer to the current understanding of the cultural variations of the self and agency?

  1. Epigenetics

How can we begin to understand the epigenetic signaling pathways that mediate cultural influences on the brain, the body, and the mind?

 

DANIEL LENDE

I’m thinking a lot about translational work, at what can occupy the space between academic and applied.  We need people and techniques/methods and institutional forms to create the connections between academic research and thinking and the applied/work side of things.  One way to get at what I mean is to talk about physics, applied physics, and engineering.  We haven’t per se established this translational/design space for culture, mind, and brain.

SAMUEL VEISSIERE

  1. How do changing social conditions (at the level of social interaction, levels of social support, and systems of meaning) in the age of the Internet and rapid misinformation contribute to new patterns of intergroup competition and social polarization?
  2. What are the implications of these dynamics on human wellbeing and democracy?
  3. What are the implications of these dynamics on university culture, academic freedom, and scientific production?
  4. How can psychocultural research help address these phenomena?

HAKWAN LAU

Is it possible / useful to have a distinction between mental illnesses that are relatively more / less shaped by culture? what would this potential taxonomy mean for our treatment strategies and legal perspectives for the two kind of illnesses respectively?

Even if a mental disorder is largely shaped by culture, is it possible that the best treatment targets are still the more ‘basic’ biological mechanisms, common in different people as well as animal models?

  

TANYA LUHRMANN

How do different models or theories of mind affect human experience; what is absorption; are there different pathways for hallucinations for those with and without psychosis?

 

JEFFREY SNODGRASS

I’m interested in (1) How anthros can improve causal inference, e.g., through better research design and logic (longitudinal designs, field and natural experiments, counterfactual reasoning), (2) Specifically, how to tease out causality in bidirectional relationships between culture and biology in relation to linked psychosocial stress and immune function (relaxation improves immune function; poor immune function and health are stressful), and (3) The role of emotion regulation in processes related to immune functioning.

DIETRICH STOUT

I’m not sure if these are things I would propose for the whole group to discuss, but I am currently very interested in:

  1. The role of refined perceptual-motor control and body awareness in the evolutionary-developmental construction of social cognition, including imitation and mentalizing/theory-of-mind.
  2. Relatedly, the embodied foundations of skill learning across domains from the “concrete” to the “abstract.” To what extent does the full range of human cultural learning, from bodily skills to abstract symbol manipulation, share a neural, behavioral, and experiential foundation in our capacity for sensuous engagement with the world?
  3. How can we leverage new technologies for big data collection (in the field, in the lab, online) and computational analysis (e.g. machine learning) to accomplish a “real-world” neuroscience of complex human behaviors in real contexts? A “Neuroscience in the wild.”