Increasing evidence suggests that cultural influences on brain activity are associated with multiple cognitive and affective processes. These findings prompt an integrative framework to account for dynamic interactions between culture, behavior, and the brain. Prof. Han and Dr. Yina Ma put forward a culture-behavior-brain (CBB) loop model of human development that proposes that culture shapes the brain by contextualizing behavior and the brain fits and modifies culture via behavioral influences. The CBB loop model posits that genes provide a fundamental basis for and interact with the CBB loop at both individual and population levels. The CBB-loop model advances our understanding of the dynamic relationships between culture, behavior, and the brain, which are critical for human phylogeny and ontogeny. Future brain changes due to cultural influences are discussed based on the CBB-loop model.

Han, S., & Ma, Y. (2015). A Culture–Behavior–Brain Loop Model of Human Development.  Trends in Cognitive Sciences . doi:10.1016/j.tics.2015.08.010