Culture, Brain and Development Unrecognized

Culture, Brain, and Development Program (CBD)

Have you ever wondered about the nature of consciousness? Did you know that life experiences influence the expression of genes? Do you want to learn more about how your emotions are influenced by your culture and your biology? Did you ever think that perhaps people in different cultures experience very different emotions? Are you curious about how children learn about culture and whether in fact children also help create culture? These are the sorts of questions that students affiliated with the Culture, Brain, and Development Program (CBD) think about every day. You can design a CBD project or a CBD internship and get CBD funding for some of your expenses, so go find out about the money!

CBD is funded by the Foundation for Psychocultural Research (FPR) and is organized by five great Hampshire faculty (they're the "Steering Committee") who will help you be all the CBD you can be! These faculty leaders bring exciting speakers to campus and help CBD students keep a CBD Student Group going. Go to a meeting and join the discussion, plan the next meeting, and you just might find some students who would like to work with you to host a CBD conference or workshop weekend or some other incredible CBD event on campus. Talk to one of those five great faculty members about it, and then propose your idea and its budget to the steering committee because the program has funds for student-initiated CBD activities. The key is the C-B-D of your ideas, only one of the three is not enough. So if you are already thinking about culture and brain, or brain and human development, or culture and human development, you have some very exciting opportunities during your years at Hampshire College. Welcome!

Upcoming
More to come - check back!

Fall 2011/Spring 2012
October 15 - CBD Grant Recipient Presentations

October 27 - "Intersecting Complexity: Neuroscience Lie Detection and the Legal Admissibility Matrix" by Jane Moriarty Public Lecture 5:30pm in FPH Main Lecture Hall

Neuroscientists have made substantial progress in the last decade using neuroimaging in controlled laboratory studies to distinguish between truth-telling and deception. fMRI technology integrates physics, engineering, chemistry, biology, physiology and statistical analysis to measure changes in brain activity. When synchronized with an appropriate behavioral paradigm, fMRI can discriminate between lies and truth in individual subjects with an accuracy rate of greater than 75%. While most neuroscientists believe that fMRI lie detection is not courtroom-ready, commercial entities are attempting to introduce tests results in trials. Proper legal analysis of the admissibility of scientific evidence balances many factors, including constitutionality, reliability, the role and limitations of juries, and social policy. The point where these two complex systems of science and law intersect is the courtroom. This presentation asks whether the science is good enough for the courtroom and whether the courtroom is capable of managing the science. Creating an "admissibility matrix," the author attempts to deconstruct and explain the complexities of both science and law to determine if there is a future for neuroscience lie detection in court.

Jane Campbell Moriarty is Carol Los Mansmann Chair in Faculty Scholarship in the School of Law, Duquesne University: http://times.duq.edu/2011/05/inaugural-carol-los-mansmann-chair-in-faculty-scholarship-named/

Archived
Click here for lecture and event archives prior to F11.