How cultural is 'cultural neuroscience'? Some comments on an emerging research paradigm

'Cultural neuroscience' presents itself as a new research paradigm within the neurosciences that takes the mutual constitution of culture, mind and brain seriously. As such, it has already gained considerable attention both among neuroscientists and traditional cultural psychologists. A superficial look at some of the studies published by practitioners in the field, however, might leave one with the impression that cultural neuroscience has more to do with the corroboration of well-established cultural cliches than with the broadening of mind it promises to bring about. In this article, we take a closer look at the emerging field of cultural neuroscience. The first section provides an overview of cultural neuroscience both with respect to the vision put forward by its proponents and to the actual state of research. In the second section, we engage with cultural neuroscience's parent discipline, cultural psychology, to gain a better understanding of the constructs and paradigms used by cultural neuroscientists. We conclude with three constructive proposals for a 'truly cultural cultural neuroscience' that avoids the popular pitfalls of essentialism and reductionism. BioSocieties (2012) 7, 433-458. doi:10.1057/biosoc.2012.30