Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vfjqv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T19:03:47.124Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Culture and the plasticity of perception

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2020

Michael Lifshitz Open the ORCID record for Michael Lifshitz [Opens in a new window]  and
T. M. Luhrmann
Michael Lifshitz
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305-2034. lifshitz@stanford.edu luhrmann@stanford.edu
T. M. Luhrmann
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305-2034. lifshitz@stanford.edu luhrmann@stanford.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Culture shapes our basic sensory experience of the world. This is particularly striking in the study of religion and psychosis, where we and others have shown that cultural context determines both the structure and content of hallucination-like events. The cultural shaping of hallucinations may provide a rich case-study for linking cultural learning with emerging prediction-based models of perception.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 43 , 2020 , e107
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bilu, Y. (2013) We want to see our king: Apparitions in Messianic Habad. Ethos 41:98–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corlett, P. R., Horga, G., Fletcher, P. C., Alderson-Day, B., Schmack, K. & Powers, A. R. III (2018) Hallucinations and strong priors. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 23(2):114–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Geertz, C. (1973) The interpretation of culture. Basic Books.Google Scholar
Kroeber, A. L. & Kluckhohn, C. (1952) Culture: A critical review of concepts and definitions. Papers. Peabody Museum of Archeology & Ethnology, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Larøi, F., Luhrmann, T. M., Bell, V., Christian, W. A. Jr., Deshpande, S., Fernyhough, C., Jenkins, J. & Woods, A. (2014) Culture and hallucinations: Overview and future directions. Schizophrenia Bulletin 40(Suppl_4):S213–20.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lifshitz, M., van Elk, M. & Luhrmann, T. M. (2019) Absorption and spiritual experience: A review of evidence and potential mechanisms. Consciousness and Cognition 73:102760.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Luhrmann, T. M. (2012) When God talks back: Understanding the American evangelical relationship with God. Knopf.Google Scholar
Luhrmann, T. M., Alderson-Day, B., Bell, V., Bless, J. J., Corlett, P., Hugdahl, K., Jones, N., Larøi, F., Moseley, P., Padmavati, R. & Peters, E. (2019) Beyond trauma: A multiple pathways approach to auditory hallucinations in clinical and nonclinical populations. Schizophrenia Bulletin 45(Suppl_1):S24–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Luhrmann, T. M. & Morgain, R. (2012) Prayer as inner sense cultivation: An attentional learning theory of spiritual experience. Ethos 40(4):359–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luhrmann, T. M., Padmavati, R., Tharoor, H. & Osei, A. (2015) Differences in voice-hearing experiences of people with psychosis in the USA, India and Ghana: Interview-based study. The British Journal of Psychiatry 206(1):41–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wilkinson, S. & Bell, V. (2016) The representation of agents in auditory verbal hallucinations. Mind & Language 31(1):104–126.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed