CBB Model

The Culture-Brain-Behavior Interaction (CBB) Model is proposed as a clinical model for describing the relationship between culture, the brain, and behavior. This model proposes that the ability to change across the lifespan is ubiquitous to brain and behavior, each 'organismic level' (such as brain, cognition, genes) feedbacks into each other after cognitive mediation or learning occurs, and cultures are characterized by sets of behavioral continua that individuals display to varying degrees. It also holds that cultural scripts are sometimes learned or performed imperfectly, that individuals may cognitively mediate learned actions across the lifespan although some automaticity occurs. The CBB Model relates these principles to psychiatry, medical anthropology, and global mental health by suggesting that patient groups across cultures may have some of their own variations in behavior, brain, and even genetic processes across cultures. The authors who proposed the CBB model, Crafa and Nagel, suggest that understanding cultural differences may help clarify some of the heterogeneity in neuropsychiatry. This model acts as a foundation for Cultural Neuropsychiatry.