The human brain is currently studied as a natural object working in a world of natural stimuli. Brain functional organization depending on the socio-cultural environment is not sufficiently considered. Research perspectives are outlined in order to verify the hypothesis of the social and cultural influences on brain functioning.
The human brain is not just a vessel or an instrument at the service of values or of a culture imposed from outside. It is the brain itself which, in its interaction with the social and cultural environment and in its individual variety manifested over the human history, produced and yet produces values and cultures. However, in both current neurophysiology and neuropsychology, the aim of the research is to detect resemblances rather than differences in brain functions. In view of this approach, an abstract environment has been created for the purpose of studying the responses of a brain that shares many features with that of other animal species but has little in common with the human brain. Neurophysiological and neuropsychological research is not to be rejected in the study of the human brain and the latter is to be entrusted to psychologists, sociologists, and philosophers. It is a matter of changing the direction of the lines of research when we want to appreciate the significance of man’s biosocial dimension at the level of his most important structure – his brain.
Read also: Looking for the Social and Cultural Dimension of the Human Brain
Learning Change 