Conference on Childhood, Culture, and Neurodevelopment

描述(申请人提供)：动物和人体研究强调早期生活经验对以后发展的重要性。然而，现有的许多关于早期生活如何塑造发展的研究都建立在依赖于单一理论、非综合观点的研究基础上。例如，通常，使用动物模型的神经生物学家只关注离散应激源对有机体随后的生理变化和发育的影响，而不考虑实验室外发挥作用的一些丰富而多样的背景因素，这些因素也可能影响生理学。同样，人类学家专注于个人和社会群体的文化和意义，而不考虑它们对影响发展的神经生物学机制的影响。因此，可以理解的是，生物科学和社会科学都没有考虑到既相互作用又相互影响人类发展的多种因素，特别是那些恰好超出各自学科范围的因素。我们建议召开一次会议，试图通过研究生命最初几年的早期经历如何有助于提高韧性和心理健康，或易受诸如焦虑、抑郁和压力相关障碍等精神病理的影响，来填补这一空白。特别是，我们将从神经生物学和跨文化相结合的角度来研究儿童的规范发展，特别是社会构建的背景和规范环境如何影响生理、社会和心理发展。会议将汇集一个由研究人员和学者组成的多学科团队，代表人类学、神经生物学、认知神经科学、心理学和精神病学等领域。通过演讲和圆桌讨论，我们希望让对生物学、心理学和文化人类学之间的互动感兴趣的不同学者参与进来，共同探索文化环境和大脑发育如何相互作用，并影响早期的生命体验和发展。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Animal and human studies have emphasized the primacy of early life experience on later development. However, much of the existing research on precisely how early life shapes development is founded on studies that rely on mono-theoretical, non-integrated perspectives. Typically, for example, neurobiologists using animal models focus exclusively on the effects of discrete stressors on the subsequent physiological changes and development of the organism, without considering some of the rich and varied contextual factors at play outside the laboratory that may also influence physiology. Likewise, anthropologists focus on culture and meanings with respect to the individual and social group, without considering their impact on neurobiological mechanisms that influence development. As a result, both the biological and social sciences may have, understandably, failed to consider multiple factors that both interact with each other and mutually influence human development, particularly those factors that happen to fall outside their respective disciplines. We propose a conference that seeks to fill this gap by examining how early experiences in the first several years of life contribute to resilience and mental well being or vulnerability to psychopathologies, such as anxiety, depression, and stress-related disorders. In particular, we will look at normative child development from combined neurobiological and cross-cultural perspectives, especially at how socially constructed contexts and normative environments impact physiological, social, and psychological development. The conference will bring together a multi-disciplinary team of researchers and scholars, representing the fields of anthropology, neurobiology, cognitive neuroscience, psychology, and psychiatry. Through presentations and roundtable discussions we want to involve a diverse audience of scholars interested in interactions between biology, psychology, and cultural anthropology that will collectively explore how cultural settings and brain development interact and affect early life experience and development.