Past Fora on Culture, Brain, and Development
The Foundation for Psychocultural Research-UCLA Center for Culture, Brain, and Development
Spring Quarter 2002
April 2, 2002 The Cultured Ape? Spring 2002 CBD Distinguished Lecturer Andrew Whiten, School of Psychology, University of St. Andrew's, Scotland
April 9, 2002 Interdisciplinary Daniel Siegel, Center for Human Development; Department of Psychiatry, UCLA
April 16, 2002 Mirror Neurons: Implications for the Ontogeny and Phylogeny of Cultural Processes Patricia Greenfield, Department of Psychology, UCLA
April 23, 2002 Mirror Neurons Marco Iacoboni, UCLA Brain Mapping Center
May 7, 2002 Neurobiology of Attachment Allan Schore, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA
May 14, 2002 Adolescence and the Brain Elizabeth Sowell, UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute
May 21, 2002 Culture and the Development of Narrative Elinor Ochs, Department of Anthopology, UCLA
May 28, 2002 Recovering Lost Languages in Bilingual Development Terry Au, Department of Psychology, UCLA
Fall Quarter, 2002
October 1, 2002 Self and Brain Jonas Kaplan, Department of Psychology, UCLA
October 15, 2002 Never Leave Yourself: Ethnopsychology, Cultural Change, and the Case of Child Abuse Trauma in Belize Eileen Anderson-Fye, Department of Psychology, UCLA
November 12, 2002 The Universal Need to Belong: Studies in the Micro-expressive Patterns of Mother-infant Vocal Interaction Maya Gratier, Department of Psychology, UCLA
November 26, 2002 John Schumann, Dept. of TESL / Applied Linguistics, UCLA
Winter Quarter 2003
January 14, 2003 Comparative Phylogeny of Imitation and its Implications for Human Cultural Transmission Robert Boyd, Department of Anthropology, UCLA
January 28, 2003 Learning Languages by Heart: Guided Repetition in Koranic and Public School in Maroua, Cameroon Leslie Moore, Department of Applied Linguistics & TESL, UCLA
February 11, 2003 Imitation Deficits in Autism Winter 2003 CBD Distinguished Lecturer Sally Rogers, Department of Psychiatry, UC Davis
February 25, 2003 The Neuroscience of Mindreading and Autism Mirella Dapretto, UCLA Brain Mapping Center
March 11, 2003 Intentional Relations and Social Understanding Winter 2003 CBD Distinguished Lecturer John Barresi, Department of Psychology, Dalhousie University
Spring Quarter 2003
April 15th: Culture and Universals: Integrating Social and Cognitive Development Patricia Greenfield, UCLA Psychology
April 29th: Interdisciplinary Collaborative Research: Barriers, benefits, and challenges based on programmatic research on pregnancy Christine Dunkel-Schetter, UCLA Psychology
May 13th: Thomas Weisner Is Bedsharing Good For Children? Evidence from an 18-year longitudinal study of nonconventional families Thomas Weisner, UCLA Anthropology and Psychology, UCLA Department of Psychiatry, and Center for Culture and Health
May 27th: Apprenticeship in Schools: Can a classroom become a community of practice? Yasmin Kafai, UCLA Education
Fall Quarter 2003
September 30 Mapping the Brain: Action Observation, Imitation, Gesture, and Action Strategy Istvan Molnar-Szakacs, CBD predoc and graduate student in Neuroscience
October 13 Thinking about Biology and Behavior: The Case of Early Relationships Fall 2003 CBD Distinguished Lecturer Melvin J. Konner, Ph.D., M.D. Department of Anthropology and School of Medicine, Emory University
October 28 Peer Socialization of Race-related Behaviors in Monitored and Unmonitored Chat Rooms Brendesha Tynes, CBD predoc and graduate student in Education
November 18 Ouija Boards, Dowsing Rods, and the Brain: Examining the Sense of Control Jonas Kaplan, CBD postdoc
Winter Quarter, 2004
January 27 Cultural Attunement, Improvisation and Collaboration in the Classroom: Comparing two contexts for teacher-student interaction Maya Gratier, CBD Post-Doctoral Fellow
February 10 Cultural Change and Mental Health Among Belizean and Belizean-American Adolescents: Working Toward an Integrative Project Eileen Anderson-Fye, EdD in Human Development and Psychology and CBD Post-Doctoral Fellow
February 24 Transition to Parenthood: A Group Intervention for Couples Conceiving through In Vitro Fertilization Lisa Price, M.D., Visiting CBD Speaker and Clinical Fellow in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
February 26 Infant Intersubjectivity: Motives for Cultural Learning Winter 2004 CBD Distinguished Lecturer Colwyn Trevarthen Professor (Emeritus) of Child Psychology and Psychobiology, and Research Fellow in Psychology University of Edinburgh
March 9 The Biosemiotic Turn: Situating the Natural Origin of Sign Relations Donald Favareau, CBD predoc and graduate student in Applied Linguistics
March 16 The preferred male body: The roles of culture, evolution, gender, and sexual orientation. David Frederick, CBD Predoc and Graduate Student in Psychology
Spring Quarter 2004
April 27 Body Image, Eating Disorders, and Social Transition Socialization in Adolescence Eileen Anderson-Fye, EdD CBD Post-Doctoral Fellow and EdD in Human Development and Psychology, Harvard University May 11 Movements and Madness: An ethnographic film on the entanglements of culture and neuropsychiatric disorders in Java, Indonesia Rob Lemelson, PhD and Dag Yngvesson, ethnographic filmmaker May 25 Biocultural Dynamics of Adolescent Development Spring 04 CBD Distinguished Lecturer Carol Worthman, PhD Department of Anthropology, Emory University June 1 Pubertal Transition, Contexts, and Behavioral and Emotional Development Xiaojia Ge, PhD Professor of Human Development, UC Davis
June 8 Genes and Environment in the Development of Schizophrenia Ty Cannon, PhD Staglin Family Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, and Human Genetics, UCLA
Fall Quarter 2004
November 16, 2004 Greg Bryant, CBD Postdoctoral Fellow, UCLA Verbal Irony and the Voice in Spontaneous Speech
November 23, 2004 Melinda Chen, CBD Postdoctoral Fellow, UCLA Linguistic Dynamics of Sociocultural Alienation: Embodiment of Expression in Cognitive Linguistics
December 7, 2004 Gui Xue, CBD Postdoctoral Fellow, UCLA Language and Brain Development: A Crosss-Cultural Perspective
Winter Quarter 2005
January 12, 2005: CBD Distinguished Lecturer Larry Young Emory University 12:00pm - 1:30pm The Molecular Basis of Social Bonding
January 18, 2005 William Bechtel Professor Department of Philosophy, UCSD Mechanism, Localization, and Modularity February 1, 2005 Leda Cosmides Department of Psychology, UCSB Neurocognitive Adaptations for Social Exchange Article 1 & Article 2
February 15, 2005 Brad Duchaine Postdoctoral Fellow Department of Psychology, Harvard Prosopagnosia and Evidence for Face-Specific Mechanisms
Spring Quarter 2005
April 26, 2005 Jennifer Pfeifer CBD Predoctoral Trainee Department of Psychology, UCLA Using fMRI to Examine Foundations of Self-Knowledge Retrieval and Empathy in Childhood: Two Developmental Social Cognitive Neuroscience Studies
May 3, 2005 Istvan Molnar-Szakacs CBD Predoctoral Trainee Interdepartmental Program for Neuroscience, UCLA Mirrors in the Brain: Actions, Intentions and Interactions
May 17, 2005 Richard Lewis and Sharon Goto Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Pomona College Culture and Context: Neural Mechanisms of Collectivism
May 24, 2005 Lotte Thomsen CBD Predoctoral Trainee Department of Psychology, UCLA The Social Grammars of Relational Forms and How to Measure Them (Almost) Non-Verbally
May 26, 2005 12:00 - 1:30pm Sue Carter University of Illinois Developmental Programming and Social Behavior: Insights from Prairie Voles
June 7, 2005 Kristin McNealy CBD Predoctoral Trainee Interdepartmental Program for Neuroscience, UCLA Neural Correlates of Language Learning Throughout Development
Fall Quarter 2005
October 11, 2005
12:00 - 1:30 pm
Judith L. Rapoport, MD
Chief Child Psychiatry Branch
National Institute of Mental Health
Normal and Abnormal Brain Development
Non invasive brain imaging enables prospective studies of normal and abnormal braind development. The talk will be an overview of what we have learned from prospective normative studies and studies of psychotic and hyperactive children. There are significant effects of IQ, gender , genetics (generally) and risk alleles of specific genes known to affect brain development on the shape of regional brain developmental trajectories. Diagnostically specific developmental patterns are seen for psychotic, bipolar and ADHD populations. Some of the ADHD findings may be plastic response to illness as they are associated with a better outcome.
October 18, 2005
Alma Gottlieb
Professor, Department of Anthropology
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Walking On Grandfather's Spirit: A Local Model Of Motor And Dental Development From West Africa
Normal and Abnormal Brain Development
October 25, 2005
Daniel Siegel, M.D.
Center for Human Development
Normal and Abnormal Brain Development
THURSDAY: November 10, 2005
Benjamin C. Campbell, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology Boston University
Adrenarche and Human Development
November 15, 2005
Ted Hutman
CBD Predoctoral Trainee Department of Psychology, UCLA
Maternal Directives in Autism: An analysis of mother-child play interactions
Winter Quarter 2006
January 31, 2006
Lotte Thomsen
CBD Predoctoral Trainee Department of Psychology, Harvard University
What a Psychologist can learn amongst the Inuit of North Greenland: Implicit and Declarative Aspects of Relationships
Feburary 7, 2006
Mari Davis
CBD Predoctoral Trainee Department of Psychology, UCLA
Understanding Emotions in Others: Mirror Neurons Dysfunction in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders
Feburary 14, 2006
Amy Hubbard
CBD Predoctoral Trainee Department of Applied Linguistics, UCLA
The Way We Move: A Functional MRI Study of how our Brain Processes Movement Accompanying Speech in Native and Secondary-Language Speakers
March 7, 2006
Gui Xue
CBD Postdoctoral Fellow Department of Psychology, UCLA
A Reexamination of the Visual Form Area Hypothesis: Combining Artificial Language Training and Cross-Cultural Studies
March 7, 2006
Greg Bryant
CBD Postdoctoral Fellow Department of Anthropology, UCLA
Vocal Communication Across Disparate Cultures
Spring Quarter 2006
April 11, 2006
Namhee Lee
Adjunct Assistant Professor Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, UCLA
The Evolution of Grammar
April 25, 2006
Lisa Mikesell
Department of Applied Linguistics, UCLA
Implications of the Interactional Instinct for the Nature of Language
Fall Quarter 2006
CBD DISTINGUISHED LECTURE
December 5, 2006 Susan Seymour "Mothers, Daughters, & Grandmothers: A Longitudinal Study of the Changing Lives of Women in an Indian Town"
CBD Forum
Journal Club meeting
December 5, 2006
Article 1 - Seymour Intro
Article 2 - "Multiple Caretaking of Infants and Young Children: An Area in Critical Need of a Feminist Psychological Anthropology"
November 21, 2006
Article 1 - Why Sex Matters
Article 2 - Why Sex Doesn't Matter
November 7, 2006
Article 1 - "Cultural Teaching: The Development of Teaching Skills in Maya Sibling Interaction
Article 2 - "The Social Organization of Teaching"
October 24, 2006
Link to article 1 which we will discuss October 24t
Fall Quarter 2007
Forum on Culture, Brain, and Development
Listed as Anthropology M293, Applied Linguistics M232, Education M285, Neuroscience M293, or Psychology M248
CBD Forum
Dr. Patricia Greenfield, Psychology
Tuesdays 12:15 - 1:50, Haines Hall 352. Lunch is provided; 5 class sessions
Week 2:
Oct 9
Dr. Alan Fiske
Week 4:
Oct 23
Dr. Mirella Dapretto
Week 5:
Oct 30
JPS student papers:
Kristen McNealy, Amy Hubbard
Week 9
Nov 27
Student papers: Alethea Marti, David
Frederick, Dr. Ted Hutman
Week 10
Dec 4
Dr. Clark Barrett
Spring Quarter 2008
Fall Quarter 2008
Tuesday, November 18
Representations of relationships children have with mothers, teachers, and friends, and their relation to social competence
Jennifer Vu, CBD Graduate Fellow
UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies
Social change and Maya gender identity development: The new emerging adult in Chiapas, Mexico
Adriana Manago, CBD Graduate Fellow
UCLA Department of Psychology
Distinguishing emotions and attitudes in the study of contempt: Conceptual, functional, and phylogenetic considerations
Matt Gervais, CBD Graduate Fellow
UCLA Department of Anthropology
Tuesday, November 4
Ethnic microaggressions and the adjustment of Latino and Asian-American adolescents
Virginia Huynh, CBD Graduate Fellow
UCLA Department of Psychology
Developmental changes in the neural underpinnings of language learning
Kristin McNealy, CBD Graduate Fellow
UCLA Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program
Maternal stress in the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake
Kek Khee Loo, MD, CBD Postdoctoral Fellow
Developmental Studies Program, Department of Pediatrics
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Tuesday, October 21
Individualistic and collectivistic value conflicts in Korean elementary school children
Heejung Park, CBD Graduate Fellow
UCLA Department of Psychology
Biological constructions versus biological cures: Cultural negotiations of mental illness
Katie Hale, CBD Graduate Fellow
UCLA Department of Anthropology
Using dialogue to construct word combinations: Ontogeny and phylogeny
Kristen Gillespie, CBD Graduate Fellow
UCLA Department of Psychology
Tuesday, October 14
The human mirror system and targeted cultural learning
Elizabeth Reynolds Losin, CBD Graduate Fellow
UCLA Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program
Patterns of movement and patterns of thought: The role of bodily experiences in the development of children's understanding of social relationships
Seinenu Thein, CBD Graduate Fellow
UCLA Department of Psychology
Tuesday, December 2
Joey Fung, CBD Graduate Fellow
UCLA Department of Psychology
Dave Frederick, CBD Graduate Fellow
UCLA Department of Psychology
Mari Davies, CBD Graduate Fellow
UCLA Department of Psychology
Winter Quarter 2009
The CBD Winter Forum presents speakers from clinical psychology, developmental psychology, and cognitive neuroscience and anthropology. Presentations will examine neural, developmental and cultural perspectives on psychopathology, including topics of socioemotional development from a cross-cultural perspective, culturally-sensitive interventions, the effects of early adverse experience on social and brain development, atypical brain development and developmental psychopathology.
Students interested in participating in the CBD Integrative Seminar -- which includes the forum talks followed by an hour discussion -- should enroll in Anthro M293S, Ap&TESL M233, Educ M286, or Psych M247.
Individuals who would like to enroll for the forum talks ONLY should enroll in Anthro M293, Ap&TESL M232, Educ M285, Neurosci M293, or Psych M248.
Fora are held Wendesdays from 12:00 - 1:15 pm
Franz Hall, Room 3534
January 14
Culture and Developmental Psychopathology
Anna Lau, PhD.
January 21
Neural Systems and Developmental Psychopathology
Adriana Galvan, PhD.
January 28
How Social Experience Gets Under the Skin: Learning, Emotion and Child Development
Guest Speaker: Seth D Pollack, PhD.
Letters & Science Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Professor of Anthropology, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin at Madison
How are complex sets of neural circuitry shaped and refined by the nature of the social and emotional experiences that children encounter in their early environments? To address questions about the role of social experience on the development of brain-behavior relations, my students and I have focused upon populations of children and nonhuman primates who have endured atypical caregiving. In this presentation, I will highlight the ways in which studying these children helps to address issues including (1) neurobiological and evolutionary perspectives on the development of emotion regulation, (2) the developmental processes underlying sensitivity o contextual or environmental influences, and (3) defining and specifying ways in which the environment creates long-term effects on brain and behavior.
February 4
40 years of silence: An Indonesian tragedy
Guest Speaker: Robert Lemelson, PhD.
Research Anthropologist, Department of Psychiatry, NPI-Semel Institute for Neuroscience, Center for Culture and Health, UCLA
NOTE: Lecture will take place from 12:00 - 2:00 PM
Directed by documentary filmmaker and world renowned-psychological anthropologist Robert Lemelson, "40 Years of Silence: An Indonesian Tragedy" is the moving feature length documentary film about one of the most horrific chapters in Indonesia's history. In one of the largest unknown mass-killings of the 20th century, an estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 people were secretly and
systematically killed in 1965, when General Suharto began a bloody purge of suspected "communists" throughout Indonesia. Wielding his growing influence through a complex and highly contested series of events to install his New Order regime, Suharto ultimately gained power and the presidency of the country. Under his authoritarian rule, any discussion, recognition or memorializing of the mass killings that differed from the Suharto's official state narrative was quickly suppressed.
"40 Years of Silence: An Indonesian Tragedy" follows the compelling testimonies of four individuals and their families from Central Java and Bali, two regions heavily affected by the purge. As they break their silence publicly for the first time, each family provides an intimate and frightening look at what it was like for survivors of the mass-killings. In chilling detail, they describe the events of 1965 through their own experiences, re-living and reflecting upon the stigmatization and brutalization they continue to endure on both the village and state levels. Over time, the survivors and their families attempt to find ways to deal with a tragedy that was, and is still not, openly recognized by their neighbors, government or the world.
Through their stories, the audience will come to understand modern-day Indonesia's potential for retribution, rehabilitation and reconciliation within this troubled historical context. "40Years of Silence: An Indonesian Tragedy" was produced by Lemelson's Elemental Productions. Based in Los Angeles, Elemental Productions is dedicated to the production of ethnographic documentaries focusing on the relationship between culture, psychology and personal experience in Indonesia
and the United States.
February 11
Brain Imaging of Reward Processing and its Relation to Social Cognition
Guest Speaker: Susan Y Bookheimer, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute for Neuroscience, UCLA
Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impairments in language and social communication with the presence of repetitive and stereotyped motor behaviors. Appropriate social behaviors are rarely explicitly taught, and likely acquired through reward-based implicit learning mechanisms. The shared neural substrate for pro-social behaviors and reward networks has been examined in animal models as well as in humans. In this talk I will discuss the relationship between reward processing and social learning in a sample of children with social deficits; children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Our data suggest a diminished neural response to both reward types in ASD, as well as a further deficit in frontostriatal response during social rewarded learning, supporting a relationship between rewarded implicit learning for the development of social behaviors. Moreover, we show a relationship between ventral striatum response to social rewards and the level of reciprocal social behaviors in typically developing (TD) children. Finally, we provide preliminary evidence that the autism risk gene CNTNP2 is expressed in frontal lobe and striatum in fetal brain, and correlates with abnormal activity in fronto-striatal circuits during in reward processing tasks in children with autism. The data together suggest a neural basis supporting the social motivation deficit hypothesis of autism.
February 18
Social Functioning and Adjustment in Chinese and North American Children: A Contextual-Developmental Perspective
Guest Speaker: Xinyen Chen, PhD.
University of Western Ontario
My talk will focus on children's socioemotional functioning from a contextual-developmental perspective. I will discuss some theoretical issues concerning cultural involvement in children’s socioemotional functioning and the mediating role of social interactions and relationships in cultural processes. Then, I will present findings from the projects my collaborators and I have been conducting over the past 15 years in Chinese and Canadian children. Whereas the projects tap broad aspects of socioemotional characteristics and relationships, I will focus on shyness-inhibition in childhood and adolescence and its functional meanings in social and psychological adjustment in different societies. I will also present the results of recent studies concerning the implications of the macro-level societal change in China for children’s socioemotional functioning and adjustment.
February 25
Neuro- and Behavioral Development Following Early Life Stress
Nim Tottenham, PhD.
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, UCLA
Early adversity, for example poor caregiving, can have profound effects on emotional development. Orphanage rearing, even in the best circumstances, lies outside of the bounds of a species-typical caregiving environment. Children who have experienced this type of care often have particular difficulty in socio-emotional domains. This talk will describe the developmental trajectory of socio-emotional behaviors and associated neuro-development in a population of previously institutionalized (PI) children using behavioral, structural and functional neuroimaging (MRI), and eyetracking methodology. Changes in limbic circuitry may underlie residual emotional and social problems experienced by children who have been internationally adopted. This talk should appeal to those interested in socio-emotional information processing and the neurobiology of emotions across development.
March 4
Family-Based Strategies to Promote Resilience of Mexican American Youth
Nancy Gonzales, PhD.
Women and Philanthropy Distinguished Professor, Department of Psychology, Arizona State University
Compared to the general population and other minority groups, Mexican origin youth are at substantially increased risk for school dropout and related mental health and substance use disorders. Effective prevention strategies are critically needed to reduce these disparities and their long-term personal and public health burden. In this presentation, Dr. Gonzales will summarize findings from a randomized trial of the Bridges to High School Program / Puentes a la Secundária. Bridges / Puentes is a culturally competent, school-based, family-centered intervention designed for junior high schools students to reduce school disengagement and mental health and substance use disorders in high school and early adulthood. The trial was implemented in 7th grade with 516 Mexican origin adolescents. Positive program effects occurred at posttest on multiple individual and family processes that were proximal intervention targets. Follow-up analyses showed these experimentally-induced changes accounted for significantly lower levels of substance use, deviant peer association, externalizing and internalizing symptoms in 8th and 9th grade. Program benefits were stronger for less acculturated adolescents and for those at higher initial risk. The presentation will describe the underlying theory of the intervention, strategies to maximize its cultural sensitivity, program moderators and mediators, and future plans to examine long-term effects extending to emerging adulthood.
