Cultural differences in human brain activity: a quantitative meta-analysis.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cross-cultural psychology
• Cognitive science

Background:

• Understanding cultural variations in cognition and behavior is crucial.
• Previous research explored frameworks like holistic vs. analytic and interdependent vs. independent processes.
• The neural underpinnings of these cultural differences remain largely unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantitatively analyze brain activity differences between East Asian and Western cultures.
• To investigate whether cultural differences in psychological processes map to shared or distinct neural networks.
• To examine cultural variations in neural activity during both social and non-social cognitive tasks.

Main Methods:

• A quantitative meta-analysis was performed.
• Data from 35 functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies were synthesized.
• Brain activity patterns associated with social, social affective, and non-social processes were compared across cultural groups.

Main Results:

• East Asians showed greater activity in dorsal medial prefrontal cortex, lateral frontal cortex, and temporoparietal junction for social cognition.
• Westerners exhibited stronger activity in anterior cingulate, ventral medial prefrontal cortex, and bilateral insula for social cognition.
• Distinct neural networks were identified for social, social affective, and non-social processes across cultures, with specific regions implicated in mind inference, emotion regulation, self-relevance, and emotional responses.

Conclusions:

• Cultural differences in social and non-social cognitive processes are mediated by distinct neural networks.
• East Asian cultures are associated with neural activity in regions supporting inference of others' minds and emotion regulation.
• Western cultures show enhanced neural activity in brain areas related to self-relevance encoding and emotional responses.