Dissertation Research: Brain, Gender, Culture and the Neurosciences in the United States and China

本论文项目探讨了文化、社会、经济和政治因素在科学建设中的相互作用。该方法是对美国和中国的神经科学进行比较研究。研究策略包括参与观察、采访中美两国的神经科学家、分析美国神经科学和中国脑研究领域的领军人物的出版物以及中美两国流行和专业的脑图像来源的内容。该研究探讨了社会和文化价值，以及神经科学研究议程所依据的经济和政治制度；作为一般文化传统和价值观一部分的大脑和性别文化概念的形成、影响和转变；以及社会政治制度和文化传统影响神经科学职业招聘的方式，以及美国和中国神经科学家在研究风格、优先事项和方法上的差异。本论文的目的是通过研究神经科学领域本身及其成员的职业，展示神经科学是如何在不同的价值背景下构建的，并探讨可能导致美国和中国神经科学在研究议程、招聘模式和科学职业方面存在差异的因素。

This dissertation project explores the interaction of cultural, social, economic and political factors in the construction of the sciences. The approach is a comparative study of the neurosciences in the United States and China. The research strategy includes participant observation, interviews with neuroscientists in the U.S. and China, and content analysis of the publications of American neuroscience and Chinese brain research leaders as well as American and Chinese popular and professional sources on the images of the brain. The research explores the social and cultural values, and economic and political systems under which the research agenda for neurosciences has been set; the formation, impact and transformation of cultural concepts of the brain and gender as part of general cultural traditions and values; and the ways in which sociopolitical systems and cultural traditions affect recruitment into careers in the neurosciences and account for the differences in the research styles, priorities and methods of neuroscientists in the U.S. and China. The objectives of the dissertation are to demonstrate how the neurosciences are constructed in different value contexts by studying the field itself and the careers of its membership, and to explore the factors that may account for the differences between American and Chinese neurosciences in research agendas, recruitment patterns, and scientific careers.