One of the goals of critical neuroscience is to contribute to, and interrogate, the shifting relationship between the natural and the human sciences, with particular focus on studies of subjectivity and behavioural development. We will outline how recent advances in molecular genetics and cognitive neuroscience have brought about disturbances to the stark opposition between the brain and environment, giving new impetus to studies in epigenetics, social and cultural neuroscience and developmental cognitive neuroscience. Though phenomena such as neuroplasticity and embodiment, new metaphors of interaction have woven their way into neuroscience research and have begun to drive flourishing research programmes on the interplay between the body and its material and cultural environment, with the aim of understanding for example the links between early neglect and neurodevelopmental disorders or processes of migration and psychosis. We describe and problematize, ways in which these advances have also led to increasing calls for interdisciplinary research programmes and subsequently a growing trend among neuroscienctists to explain social and political phenomena in terms of brain function and for humanities disciplines to ground theory in neurobiological models. Using a case study of a recently formed interdisciplinary research group, we will explore the rationales, struggles and methods that constitute inter-disciplinary interaction and translation. Our aim is to examine the practices and draw out the stakes involved in collaborative exchanges that attempt to recalibrate the relationship between the brain and ist environment, and to reconfigure the relationship between the natural and human sciences.
