Culture affects brain activity

US scientists say people from different cultures use different regions of the brain to solve the same basic intuitive task.

The authors include: Professor John Gabrieli and Trey Hedden of McGovern Institute of Brain Research - Massachussets Institute of Technology (MIT); Sarah Ketay and Arthur Aron - Stony Brook University, New York; Hazel Rose Markus - Stanford University. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health - US and conducted by MIT's McGovern Institute.

For a long time, psychology has shown that American culture is based on personal values ​​and emphasizes autonomy in each context, while East Asian culture emphasizes collective and interdependent behavior. Based on behavioral research, scientists find that cultural differences affect memory and even perception . Does this correspond to the types of brain activity?

The experiment was conducted with 10 new East Asians who came to the US and 10 native Americans, who had to give quick intuition judgments while the magnetic resonance scanner (fMRI) recorded all brain activity - The technology allows mapping out every change of blood flow in the brain corresponding to mental activities.

Brain activity of East Asians and Americans when they make absolute and relative judgments.The arrow points to the areas of the brain that are attracted to solve these tasks.Americans are more active in the brain when dealing with predictions relative to absolute judgment because they are less familiar tasks, making it harder for the brain.The opposite pattern belongs to the East Asians.(Photo: Web.mit.edu)

The participants of the experiment were able to see a series of stimulus lines that formed a square & were asked to compare any stimulus line with the previous one. In one experiment, they judged that straight lines have the same length despite the circumference of the square (an absolute judgment comes from individuals who do not like the autonomy context). In another result, the participants did not hesitate to assume that straight lines had the same scale as the square without considering the absolute magnitude (a relative judgment comes from sub-individuals. mutual).

According to previous behavioral studies of similar experiments, Americans have absolute more precise judgments, while East Asians are more accurate in relative judgments. In this experiment, the tasks were so easy that the two groups had no different expressions.

However, the magnetic resonance scanner showed different strokes in the region of the brain that worked between the two groups when they made judgments. Characteristics of Americans are difficult to make relative decisions that lead to complex brain activities when dealing with the parts that require high mental attention. Their brains showed very little activity in this area when they made absolute judgments that were familiar to American culture. East Asians tend to be the opposite, the brain's attention system is much more involved in absolute judgments than relative judgments.

Professor Hedden, who led the research at the McGovern Institute, said: "We are surprised at the large differences between the two cultural groups and the mechanism of binding the attention system of the brain to spread proportionately. when judgments are outside the cultural area ".

The researchers also said that in the culturally closer individuals appear larger effects, they prefer questions and values ​​in social relations. For example, whether an individual is responsible for the failures of a family member, reflecting the involvement of cultural factors. In both groups, the brain is more active when it comes to cultural stimuli.

How do these differences appear?" People use the same mechanism of attention to many complex cognitive activities, but they are taught to use it in different ways, which is the mission of culture ." Gabrieli said: "It is fascinating to consider how the brain responds to simple drawings, one of the predictable directions, which is how individuals think about the autonomous or dependent relationships in society".

Nam Hy Hoang Phong (MIT News)