Culture, Mind, and Brain:
Emerging Concepts, Methods, Applications
October 19-20, 2012

FRIDAY, October 19, 2012


8:45
Introduction: Robert Lemelson, President, FPR; Research Anthropologist, Semel Institute for Neuroscience; Assistant Adjunct Professor, Department of Anthropology, UCLA
9:00–10:15
Session 1: "Why culture, mind, and brain?"
Chair: Greg Downey, Department of Anthropology, Macquarie University
9:00
The weirdest people in the world: The inductive challenge for the behavioral sciences / Steven Heine, Department of Psychology, UBC
9:25
Weird tasks for weird brains: Constraints and biases in brain imaging research / Marco Iacoboni, Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA
9:50
Weird enough for you yet?: A neuroanthropological response to Steven Heine and Marco Iacoboni / Greg Downey, Department of Anthropology, Macquarie University
10:15–2:15
Session 2: Sociocultural influences on gene expression
Chair: Steve Cole, Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology & Oncology, UCLA
10:15
Overview: Social regulation of gene expression / Steve Cole, Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology & Oncology, UCLA
10:40–11:00
Coffee Break
11:00
Socioeconomic status and gene expression / Edith Chen, Department of Psychology, Northwestern University
11:25
Behavioral, biological, and epigenetic consequences of different early social experiences in primates / Stephen Suomi, Section on Comparative Behavioral Genetics, NICHD
11:50
Social and individual factors, separately and in interaction, affect gene expression in immunodeficient rhesus monkeys / John Capitanio, Department of Psychology, UCD
12:15–1:15
Lunch
1:15
Social isolation / John Cacioppo, Department of Psychology, University of Chicago; and Steve Cole, Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology & Oncology, UCLA
1:40
PANEL DISCUSSION with Speakers
Invited Discussants: Beate Ritz, Department of Epidemiology, UCLA; Carol Worthman, Department of Anthropology, Emory University
2:15–5:00
Session 3: Linking cultural and genetic diversity in mind, brain and body
Chair: Joan Chiao, Department of Psychology, Northwestern University
2:15
Insights from rare variant genetic diversity in human populations / John Novembre, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, UCLA
2:40
Carlos Bustamante, Department of Genetics, Stanford University
3:05
Gene-culture interactions: The role of oxytocin receptor polymorphism in socio-emotional processes in different cultures / Heejung Kim, Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, UCSB
3:30–3:50
Coffee Break
3:50
Cultural neuroscience: Progress and future directions / Joan Chiao, Department of Psychology, Northwestern University
4:15
PANEL DISCUSSION with Speakers
Invited Discussant: Clarence Gravlee, Department of Anthropology, University of Florida
4:50–5:00
Day 1 Summary
5:00
Adjourn

SATURDAY, October 20, 2012


9:00–10:40
Session 4: Stress and Resilience
Chair: Daniel Lende, Department of Anthropology, University of South Florida
9:00
Early life adversity, allostasis, and resilience / Paul Plotsky, Stress Neurobiology Lab, Emory University
9:25
Clarence Gravlee, Department of Anthropology, University of Florida
9:50
From ethnography to epigenetics: Mixed methods mental health research in Nepal / Brandon Kohrt, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, George Washington University
10:15
Varieties of Resilience in MIDUS / Carol Ryff, Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
10:40–11:00
Coffee Break
11:00
PANEL DISCUSSION with Speakers
Invited Discussant: Edith Chen, Department of Psychology, Northwestern University
11:35–2:30
Session 5: Culture, Cognition, and Self
Chair: Shinobu Kitayama, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan
11:35
Culture wires the brain: A cognitive neuroscience perspective / Denise Park, Center for Vital Longevity, University of Texas, Dallas
12:00
Understanding the self: A cultural neuroscience approach / Georg Northoff, University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research
12:25
Hearing voices in Accra and Chennai: How the culture makes a difference to psychiatric experience / Tanya Luhrmann, Department of Anthropology, Stanford University
1:00–2:00
Lunch
2:00
5-HTTLPR polymorphism moderates the association between a cultural value and the social brain network / Shihui Han, Department of Psychology, Peking University
2:25
The error-related negativity (ERN) reveals a motivational basis of interdependent self / Shinobu Kitayama, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan
2:50
PANEL DISCUSSION WITH SPEAKERS
3:25–3:50
Session 6: Film
3:25
Standing on the edge of a thorn / Robert Lemelson, President, FPR; Research Anthropologist, Semel Institute for Neuroscience; Assistant Adjunct Professor, Department of Anthropology, UCLA
3:50–4:10
Coffee Break
4:10–5:10
Session 7: (Multiple) Pathways to Interdisciplinarity
Chair: Mirella Dapretto, PhD, Director, FPR-UCLA Center for Culture, Brain, and Development; Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA.

4:10 PANEL DISCUSSION with Shinobu Kitayama, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan; Elizabeth Reynolds Losin, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory, University of Colorado at Boulder; Thomas Weisner, Departments of Anthropology and Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA; Carol M. Worthman, Department of Anthropology, Emory University
5:10–5:15
Concluding Remarks
5:15
Adjourn

The 2012 Conference