Historical Neuroculture

Understanding who we are as humans is incomplete without considering both biological and cultural terms, or neuroculture. This chapter and the next examine the historical foundations of contemporary views, showing how our understanding of anatomy, brain function, sensory input evaluation, and higher-order functions have changed over the course of time. Looking at historical material allows us to identify assumptions that became implicit and how they were initially interwoven into the cultural fabric before they were superseded as new knowledge emerged. This kind of comparative analysis also allows us to better comprehend current understandings of brain functions, brain injury, sensory modalities, brain plasticity, and the brain/culture exchange. A key variable here is that it was not always understood that the brain constructs our sensory experiences.