Why South Africa needs cognitive neuroscientists

Abstract

Despite a long-standing and growing popularity in the minority world (wealthier regions that represent a small percentage of the world population), cognitive neuroscience has been slow to attract South African researchers and practitioners. This brief commentary reflects on why South Africa needs its own cognitive neuroscientists. Prevailing theories and constructs in the field are developed from minority world populations and are taken unquestioningly to reflect the neurocognition of all humanity. A significant potential contribution by local cognitive neuroscientists would be to challenge and critique these theories and constructs underlying neurocognition. Without representation from majority world contexts (developing nations whose populations form a significant demographic majority in the world), like South Africa, cognitive neuroscience will continue to be biased and its findings ungeneralizable. In addition, the contribution of South African cognitive neuroscientists extends beyond the conceptual. Currently, those working in the field have made some noteworthy contributions that have made a material difference in the lives of South Africans. Selected examples of these are provided. The future research agenda for the field promises increased integration of contributions from artificial intelligence (AI), psychometrics, bioinformatics, and genetics, as well as collaborative and open sharing of data. It is vital that South African cognitive neuroscientists keep pace with these developments.