A Cultural Neuroscience Approach to the Biosocial Nature of the Human Brain

Motivational Hierarchy in the Chinese Brain: Primacy of the Individual Self, Relational Self, or Collective Self?

According to the three-tier hierarchy of motivational potency in the self system, the self can be divided into individual self, relational self, and collective self, and individual self is at the top of the motivational hierarchy in Western culture. However, the motivational primacy of the individual self is challenged in Chinese culture, which raises the question about whether the three-tier hierarchy of motivational potency in the self system can be differentiated in the collectivist brain. The present study recorded the event-related potentials (ERPs) to evaluate brain responses when participants gambled for individual self, for a close friend (relational self), or for the class (collective self). The ERP results showed that when outcome feedback was positive, gambling for individual self evoked a larger reward positivity compared with gambling for a friend or for the class, while there is no difference between the latter two conditions. In contrast, when outcome feedback was negative, no significant effect was found between conditions. The present findings provide direct electrophysiological evidence that individual self is at the top of the three-tier hierarchy of the motivational system in the collectivist brain, which supports the classical pancultural view that individual self has motivational primacy.

The impact of cultural differences in self-representation on the neural substrates of posttraumatic stress disorder

A significant body of literature documents the neural mechanisms involved in the development and maintenance of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, there is very little empirical work considering the influence of culture on these underlying mechanisms. Accumulating cultural neuroscience research clearly indicates that cultural differences in self-representation modulate many of the same neural processes proposed to be aberrant in PTSD. The objective of this review paper is to consider how culture may impact on the neural mechanisms underlying PTSD. We first outline five key affective and cognitive functions and their underlying neural correlates that have been identified as being disrupted in PTSD: (1) fear dysregulation; (2) attentional biases to threat; (3) emotion and autobiographical memory; (4) self-referential processing; and (5) attachment and interpersonal processing. Second, we consider prominent cultural theories and review the empirical research that has demonstrated the influence of cultural variations in self-representation on the neural substrates of these same five affective and cognitive functions. Finally, we propose a conceptual model that suggests that these five processes have major relevance to considering how culture may influence the neural processes underpinning PTSD.

'Autism and the good life': a new approach to the study of well-being

Medical, psychological, educational and social interventions to modify the behaviour of autistic people are only justified if they confer benefit on those people. However, it is not clear how 'benefit' should be understood. Most such interventions are justified by referring to the prospect that they will effect lasting improvements in the well-being and happiness of autistic people, so they can lead good lives. What does a good life for an autistic person consist in? Can we assume that his or her well-being is substantively the same as the well-being of non-autistic individuals? In this paper, we argue that, as it stands, the current approach to the study of well-being is for the most part unable to answer these questions. In particular, much effort is needed in order to improve the epistemology of well-being, especially so if we wish this epistemology to be 'autism-sensitive'. Towards the end of the paper, we sketch a new, autism-sensitive approach and apply it in order to begin answering our initial questions.

Empathy-Related Responding in Chinese Toddlers: Factorial Structure and Cognitive Contributors

The critical role of the second year of life in the development of empathy is well accepted by psychologists. However, the developmental trends of the different components of empathy and the potential factors underlying these components during this critical period remain unclear. Eighty‐four Chinese toddlers in the second year of life participated in the present study. Empathy‐related responses were observed during three simulated procedures performed by each child's primary caregiver, the experimenter and a baby doll. An exploratory factor analysis was used to identify the different components of empathy. The shared representation of the self and others was measured using the Tasks for the Observation of Self‐Concept, self/other awareness was measured with a series of mirror tests and inhibitory control was measured using the Cylinder Inhibitory Control Task. The results showed that the empathy of Chinese toddlers contains three factors: sympathy, personal distress and orientation. Potential cognitive factors contribute to the different components of empathy through both independent and joint effects. © 2016 The Authors Infant and Child Development Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

How culture shapes social cognition deficits in mental disorders: A review

Social cognitive skills are indispensable for successful communication with others. Substantial research has determined deficits in these abilities in patients with mental disorders. In neurobiological development and continuing into adulthood, cross-cultural differences in social cognition have been demonstrated. Moreover, symptomatic patterns in mental disorders may vary according to the cultural background of an individual. Cross-cultural studies can thus help in understanding underlying (biological) mechanisms and factors that influence behavior in health and disease. In addition, studies that apply novel paradigms assessing the impact of culture on cognition may benefit and advance neuroscience research. In this review, the authors give an overview of cross-cultural research in the field of social cognition in health and in mental disorders and provide an outlook on future research directions, taking a neuroscience perspective.

Trait self-esteem and neural activities related to self-evaluation and social feedback

Self-esteem has been associated with neural responses to self-reflection and attitude toward social feedback but in different brain regions. The distinct associations might arise from different tasks or task-related attitudes in the previous studies. The current study aimed to clarify these by investigating the association between self-esteem and neural responses to evaluation of one’s own personality traits and of others’ opinion about one’s own personality traits. We scanned 25 college students using functional MRI during evaluation of oneself or evaluation of social feedback. Trait self-esteem was measured using the Rosenberg self-esteem scale after scanning. Whole-brain regression analyses revealed that trait self-esteem was associated with the bilateral orbitofrontal activity during evaluation of one’s own positive traits but with activities in the medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate, and occipital cortices during evaluation of positive social feedback. Our findings suggest that trait self-esteem modulates the degree of both affective processes in the orbitofrontal cortex during self-reflection and cognitive processes in the medial prefrontal cortex during evaluation of social feedback.

Neural evidence for cultural differences in the valuation of positive facial expressions

European Americans value excitement more and calm less than Chinese. Within cultures, European Americans value excited and calm states similarly, whereas Chinese value calm more than excited states. To examine how these cultural differences influence people's immediate responses to excited vs calm facial expressions, we combined a facial rating task with functional magnetic resonance imaging. During scanning, European American (n = 19) and Chinese (n = 19) females viewed and rated faces that varied by expression (excited, calm), ethnicity (White, Asian) and gender (male, female). As predicted, European Americans showed greater activity in circuits associated with affect and reward (bilateral ventral striatum, left caudate) while viewing excited vs calm expressions than did Chinese. Within cultures, European Americans responded to excited vs calm expressions similarly, whereas Chinese showed greater activity in these circuits in response to calm vs excited expressions regardless of targets' ethnicity or gender. Across cultural groups, greater ventral striatal activity while viewing excited vs. calm expressions predicted greater preference for excited vs calm expressions months later. These findings provide neural evidence that people find viewing the specific positive facial expressions valued by their cultures to be rewarding and relevant.

Spatiotemporal Psychopathology II: How does a psychopathology of the brain's resting state look like? Spatiotemporal approach and the history of psychopathology

Psychopathology as the investigation and classification of experience, behavior and symptoms in psychiatric patients is an old discipline that ranges back to the end of the 19th century. Since then different approaches to psychopathology have been suggested. Recent investigations showing abnormalities in the brain on different levels raise the question how the gap between brain and psyche, between neural abnormalities and alteration in experience and behavior can be bridged. Historical approaches like descriptive (Jaspers) and structural (Minkoswki) psychopathology as well as the more current phenomenological psychopathology (Paarnas, Fuchs, Sass, Stanghellini) remain on the side of the psyche giving detailed description of the phenomenal level of experience while leaving open the link to the brain. In contrast, the recently introduced Research Domain Classification (RDoC) aims at explicitly linking brain and psyche by starting from so-called 'neuro-behavioral constructs'. How does Spatiotemporal Psychopathology, as demonstrated in the first paper on depression, stand in relation to these approaches? In a nutshell, Spatiotemporal Psychopathology aims to bridge the gap between brain and psyche. Specifically, as demonstrated in depression in the first paper, the focus is on the spatiotemporal features of the brain's intrinsic activity and how they are transformed into corresponding spatiotemporal features in experience on the phenomenal level and behavioral changes, which can well account for the symptoms in these patients. This second paper focuses on some of the theoretical background assumptions in Spatiotemporal Psychopathology by directly comparing it to descriptive, structural, and phenomenological psychopathology as well as to RDoC.

Neural correlates of reflection on actual versus ideal self-discrepancy

Subjective feelings of actual/ideal self-discrepancy vary across individuals and influence one's own affective states. However, the neural correlates of actual/ideal self-discrepancy and their genetic individual differences remain unknown. We investigated neural correlates of actual/ideal self-discrepancy and their associations with the serotonin transporter promoter polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) that moderates human affective states during self-reflection. We scanned short/short and long/long allele carriers of 5-HTTLPR, using functional MRI, during reflection on the distance between actual and ideal self in personality traits. We found that larger actual/ideal self-discrepancy was associated with activations in the ventral/dorsal striatum and dorsal medial and lateral prefrontal cortices. Moreover, these brain activities were stronger in short/short than long/long allele carriers and predicted self-report of life satisfaction in short/short carriers but trait depression in long/long carriers. Our findings revealed neural substrates of actual/ideal self-discrepancy and their associations with affective states that are sensitive to individuals' genetic makeup.

Self-Orientation Modulates the Neural Correlates of Global and Local Processing

Differences in self-orientation (or "self-construal") may affect how the visual environment is attended, but the neural and cultural mechanisms that drive this remain unclear. Behavioral studies have demonstrated that people from Western backgrounds with predominant individualistic values are perceptually biased towards local-level information; whereas people from non-Western backgrounds that support collectivist values are preferentially focused on contextual and global-level information. In this study, we compared two groups differing in predominant individualistic (N = 15) vs collectivistic (N = 15) self-orientation. Participants completed a global/local perceptual conflict task whilst undergoing functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scanning. When participants high in individualistic values attended to the global level (ignoring the local level), greater activity was observed in the frontoparietal and cingulo-opercular networks that underpin attentional control, compared to the match (congruent) baseline. Participants high in collectivistic values activated similar attentional control networks o only when directly compared with global processing. This suggests that global interference was stronger than local interference in the conflict task in the collectivistic group. Both groups showed increased activity in dorsolateral prefrontal regions involved in resolving perceptual conflict during heightened distractor interference. The findings suggest that self-orientation may play an important role in driving attention networks to facilitate interaction with the visual environment.

Interaction between oxytocin receptor polymorphism and interdependent culture values on human empathy

Recent evidence suggests that the association between oxytocin receptor polymorphism (OXTR rs53576) and emotion-related behavioral/psychological tendencies differs between individuals from East Asian and Western cultures. What remains unresolved is which specific dimension of cultural orientations interacts with OXTR rs53576 to shape these tendencies and whether such gene × culture interactions occurs at both behavioral and neural level. This study investigated whether and how OXTR rs53576 interacts with interdependence-a key dimension of cultural orientations that distinguish between East Asian and Western cultures-to affect human empathy that underlies altruistic motivation and prosocial behavior. Experiment 1 measured interdependence, empathy trait and OXTR rs53576 genotypes of 1536 Chinese participants. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed a stronger association between interdependence and empathy trait in G allele carriers compared with A/A homozygotes of OXTR rs53576. Experiment 2 measured neural responses to others' suffering by scanning A/A and G/G homozygous of OXTR rs53576 using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed stronger associations between interdependence and empathic neural responses in the insula, amygdala and superior temporal gyrus in G/G compared with A/A carriers. Our results provide the first evidence for gene × culture interactions on empathy at both behavioral tendency and underlying brain activity.

Oxytocin selectively facilitates learning with social feedback and increases activity and functional connectivity in emotional memory and reward processing regions

In male Caucasian subjects, learning is facilitated by receipt of social compared with non-social feedback, and the neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) facilitates this effect. In this study, we have first shown a cultural difference in that male Chinese subjects actually perform significantly worse in the same reinforcement associated learning task with social (emotional faces) compared with non-social feedback. Nevertheless, in two independent double-blind placebo (PLC) controlled between-subject design experiments we found OXT still selectively facilitated learning with social feedback. Similar to Caucasian subjects this OXT effect was strongest with feedback using female rather than male faces. One experiment performed in conjunction with functional magnetic resonance imaging showed that during the response, but not feedback phase of the task, OXT selectively increased activity in the amygdala, hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus and putamen during the social feedback condition, and functional connectivity between the amygdala and insula and caudate. Therefore, OXT may be increasing the salience and reward value of anticipated social feedback. In the PLC group, response times and state anxiety scores during social feedback were associated with signal changes in these same regions but not in the OXT group. OXT may therefore have also facilitated learning by reducing anxiety in the social feedback condition. Overall our results provide the first evidence for cultural differences in social facilitation of learning per se, but a similar selective enhancement of learning with social feedback under OXT. This effect of OXT may be associated with enhanced responses and functional connectivity in emotional memory and reward processing regions.

ACTIVITY IN CORTICAL MIDLINE STRUCTURES IS MODULATED BY SELF-CONSTRUAL CHANGES DURING ACCULTURATION

Recent immigrants to another culture generally experience a period of acculturation during which they show self-construal changes. Here, we examine how this acculturation period alters brain activity associated with self-referential cognition. Twenty-seven native Chinese-speaking recent immigrants completed a trait-judgment task in which they judged whether a series of psychological traits applied to themselves and, separately, whether these traits applied to their mothers. Participants were scanned at two intervals: within the first two months of their arrival in the United States (Time 1), and also six months after the initial scan (Time 2). Results already revealed a significant self-vs.-mother differentiation at Time 1 in the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC). However, at time 2, this pattern diverged depending on whether immigrants became more or less like their original culture. That is to say, for immigrants who became less like Easterners, the self vs. mother difference remained, whereas for participants who became even more like Easterners, the self vs. mother difference in cortical midline structures disappeared. These findings support the notion that self-construal changes during the process of acculturation are reflected in the relative engagement of brain structures implicated in self-referential processing (i.e., MPFC and PCC) when judging traits with reference to oneself or a close other.

The uncanny return of the race concept

The aim of this Hypothesis and Theory is to question the recently increasing use of the "race" concept in contemporary genetic, psychiatric, neuroscience as well as social studies. We discuss "race" and related terms used to assign individuals to distinct groups and caution that also concepts such as "ethnicity" or "culture" unduly neglect diversity. We suggest that one factor contributing to the dangerous nature of the "race" concept is that it is based on a mixture of traditional stereotypes about "physiognomy", which are deeply imbued by colonial traditions. Furthermore, the social impact of "race classifications" will be critically reflected. We then examine current ways to apply the term "culture" and caution that while originally derived from a fundamentally different background, "culture" is all too often used as a proxy for "race", particularly when referring to the population of a certain national state or wider region. When used in such contexts, suggesting that all inhabitants of a geographical or political unit belong to a certain "culture" tends to ignore diversity and to suggest a homogeneity, which consciously or unconsciously appears to extend into the realm of biological similarities and differences. Finally, we discuss alternative approaches and their respective relevance to biological and cultural studies.

Social orientation and diabetes-related distress in Japanese and American patients with type 2 diabetes

OBJECTIVE

Recent evidence in cultural and social psychology suggests Eastern cultures' emphasis on harmony and connection with others and Western cultures' emphasis on self-direction and autonomy. In Eastern society, relational harmony is closely linked to people's well-being. The impact of this cultural and social orientation on diabetes-related distress was investigated.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

Japanese and American patients with type 2 diabetes were surveyed by well-established questionnaire in Japan and in the United States, respectively. The association of personal values for interdependence, perceived emotional support, and the Problem Areas in Diabetes scale (PAID) were analyzed.

RESULTS

A positive correlation between interdependence and PAID (r = 0.18; P = 0.025) and a negative correlation between perceived emotional support and PAID (r = - 0.24; P = 0.004) were observed after adjustments for other factors in Japanese data (n = 149), but not in American data (r = 0.00; P = 0.990, r = 0.02; P = 0.917, respectively, n = 50). In Japanese data, the three-factor structure of PAID (negative feelings about total life with diabetes, about living conditions with diabetes, and about treatment of diabetes) was identified, and interdependence showed significant positive correlations with the first and second factors and perceived emotional support showed significant negative correlations with all three factors of PAID.

CONCLUSIONS

These results suggest that personal values for interdependence may be linked to the level of diabetes-related distress and that the distress may be relieved by perception of emotional support, especially in an interdependent cultural context.

Perspectives on culture and concepts

The well-respected tradition of research on concepts uses cross-cultural comparisons to explore which aspects of conceptual behavior are universal versus culturally variable. This work continues, but it is being supplemented by intensified efforts to study how conceptual systems and cultural systems interact to modify and support each other. For example, cultural studies within the framework of domain specificity (e.g., folkphysics, folkpsychology, folkbiology) are beginning to query the domains themselves and offer alternative organizing principles (e.g., folksociology, folkecology). Findings highlight the multifaceted nature of both concepts and culture: Individuals adopt distinct conceptual construals in accordance with culturally infused systems such as language and discourse, knowledge and beliefs, and epistemological orientations. This picture complicates questions about cognitive universality or variability, suggesting that researchers may productively adopt a systems-level approach to conceptual organization and cultural epistemologies. Related implications for diversity in cognitive science are discussed.

Correlations between social-emotional feelings and anterior insula activity are independent from visceral states but influenced by culture

The anterior insula (AI) maps visceral states and is active during emotional experiences, a functional confluence that is central to neurobiological accounts of feelings. Yet, it is unclear how AI activity correlates with feelings during social emotions, and whether this correlation may be influenced by culture, as studies correlating real-time AI activity with visceral states and feelings have focused on Western subjects feeling physical pain or basic disgust. Given psychological evidence that social-emotional feelings are cognitively constructed within cultural frames, we asked Chinese and American participants to report their feeling strength to admiration and compassion-inducing narratives during fMRI with simultaneous electrocardiogram recording. Trial-by-trial, cardiac arousal and feeling strength correlated with ventral and dorsal AI activity bilaterally but predicted different variance, suggesting that interoception and social-emotional feeling construction are concurrent but dissociable AI functions. Further, although the variance that correlated with cardiac arousal did not show cultural effects, the variance that correlated with feelings did. Feeling strength was especially associated with ventral AI activity (the autonomic modulatory sector) in the Chinese group but with dorsal AI activity (the visceral-somatosensory/cognitive sector) in an American group not of Asian descent. This cultural group difference held after controlling for posterior insula (PI) activity and was replicated. A bi-cultural East-Asian American group showed intermediate results. The findings help elucidate how the AI supports feelings and suggest that previous reports that dorsal AI activation reflects feeling strength are culture related. More broadly, the results suggest that the brain's ability to construct conscious experiences of social emotion is less closely tied to visceral processes than neurobiological models predict and at least partly open to cultural influence and learning.

Observational themes of social behavioral disturbances in frontotemporal dementia

BACKGROUND

Caregivers report early disturbances in social behavior among patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD); however, there are few direct observational studies of these social behavioral disturbances. This study aimed to identify social behavioral themes in bvFTD by direct observation in naturalistic interactions. The identification of these themes can help caregivers and clinicians manage the social behavioral disturbances of this disease.

METHODS

Researchers observed 13 bvFTD patients in their homes and community-based settings and recorded field notes on their interpersonal interactions. A qualitative analysis of their social behavior was then conducted using ATLAS.ti application and a constant comparison method.

RESULTS

Qualitative analysis revealed the following themes: (1) diminished relational interest and initiation, indicating failure to seek social interactions; (2) lack of social synchrony/intersubjectivity, indicating an inability to establish and maintain interpersonal relationships; and (3) poor awareness and adherence to social boundaries and norms. These themes corresponded with changes from caregiver reports and behavioral scales.

CONCLUSION

This analysis indicates that real-world observation validates the diagnostic criteria for bvFTD and increases understanding of social behavioral disturbances in this disorder. The results of this and future observational studies can highlight key areas for clinical assessment, caregiver education, and targeted interventions that enhance the management of social behavioral disturbances in bvFTD.

Shared beliefs enhance shared feelings: religious/irreligious identifications modulate empathic neural responses

Recent neuroimaging research has revealed stronger empathic neural responses to same-race compared to other-race individuals. Is the in-group favouritism in empathic neural responses specific to race identification or a more general effect of social identification-including those based on religious/irreligious beliefs? The present study investigated whether and how intergroup relationships based on religious/irreligious identifications modulate empathic neural responses to others' pain expressions. We recorded event-related brain potentials from Chinese Christian and atheist participants while they perceived pain or neutral expressions of Chinese faces that were marked as being Christians or atheists. We found that both Christian and atheist participants showed stronger neural activity to pain (versus neutral) expressions at 132-168 ms and 200-320 ms over the frontal region to those with the same (versus different) religious/irreligious beliefs. The in-group favouritism in empathic neural responses was also evident in a later time window (412-612 ms) over the central/parietal regions in Christian but not in atheist participants. Our results indicate that the intergroup relationship based on shared beliefs, either religious or irreligious, can lead to in-group favouritism in empathy for others' suffering.

What kind of science for psychiatry?

Psychiatry has invested its hopes in neuroscience as a path to understanding mental disorders and developing more effective treatments and ultimately cures. Recently, the U.S. NIMH has elaborated this vision through a new framework for mental health research, the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC). This framework aims to orient mental health research toward the discovery of underlying neurobiological and biobehavioral mechanisms of mental disorders that will eventually lead to definitive treatments. In this article we consider the rationale of the RDoC and what it reveals about implicit models of mental disorders. As an overall framework for understanding mental disorders, RDoC is impoverished and conceptually flawed. These limitations are not accidental but stem from disciplinary commitments and interests that are at odds with the larger concerns of psychiatry. A multilevel, ecosocial approach to biobehavioral systems is needed both to guide relevant neuroscience research and insure the inclusion of social processes that may be fundamental contributors to psychopathology and recovery.

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

Psychologists have been trying to understand differences in cognition and behavior between East Asian and Western cultures within a single cognitive framework such as holistic versus analytic or interdependent versus independent processes. However, it remains unclear whether cultural differences in multiple psychological processes correspond to the same or different neural networks. We conducted a quantitative meta-analysis of 35 functional MRI studies to examine cultural differences in brain activity engaged in social and non-social processes. We showed that social cognitive processes are characterized by stronger activity in the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex, lateral frontal cortex and temporoparietal junction in East Asians but stronger activity in the anterior cingulate, ventral medial prefrontal cortex and bilateral insula in Westerners. Social affective processes are associated with stronger activity in the right dorsal lateral frontal cortex in East Asians but greater activity in the left insula and right temporal pole in Westerners. Non-social processes induce stronger activity in the left inferior parietal cortex, left middle occipital and left superior parietal cortex in East Asians but greater activations in the right lingual gyrus, right inferior parietal cortex and precuneus in Westerners. The results suggest that cultural differences in social and non-social processes are mediated by distinct neural networks. Moreover, East Asian cultures are associated with increased neural activity in the brain regions related to inference of others' mind and emotion regulation whereas Western cultures are associated with enhanced neural activity in the brain areas related to self-relevance encoding and emotional responses during social cognitive/affective processes.

Cultural influences on social feedback processing of character traits

Cultural differences are generally explained by how people see themselves in relation to social interaction partners. While Western culture emphasizes independence, East Asian culture emphasizes interdependence. Despite this focus on social interactions, it remains elusive how people from different cultures process feedback on their own (and on others') character traits. Here, participants of either German or Chinese origin engaged in a face-to-face interaction. Consequently, they updated their self- and other-ratings of 80 character traits (e.g., polite, pedantic) after receiving feedback from their interaction partners. To exclude potential confounds, we obtained data from German and Chinese participants in Berlin [functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)] and in Beijing (behavior). We tested cultural influences on social conformity, positivity biases, and self-related neural activity. First, Chinese conformed more to social feedback than Germans (i.e., Chinese updated their trait ratings more). Second, regardless of culture, participants processed self- and other-related feedback in a positively biased way (i.e., they updated more toward desirable than toward undesirable feedback). Third, changes in self-related medial prefrontal cortex activity were greater in Germans than in Chinese during feedback processing. By investigating conformity, positivity biases, and self-related activity in relation to feedback obtained in a real-life interaction, we provide an essential step toward a unifying framework for understanding the diversity of human culture.

A cross-cultural investigation of inhibitory control, generative fluency, and anxiety symptoms in Romanian and Russian preschoolers

The current study focused on the early development of inhibitory control in 5- to 7-year-old children attending kindergarten in two Eastern-European countries, Romania and Russia. These two countries share many aspects of child-rearing and educational practices, previously documented to influence the development of inhibitory control. Using the Lurian-based developmental approach offered by the Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment battery, the study aimed to contribute to cross-cultural developmental neuropsychology by exploring (a) early interrelationships between subcomponents of inhibitory control (response suppression and attention control) and generative fluency (verbal and figural) in these two cultures, as well as (b) the predictive value of external factors (culture and maternal education) and individual differences (age, gender, nonverbal intelligence, trait anxiety) on inhibitory control and fluency outcomes in children from both countries. First, findings in both culture samples suggest that even at this young age, the construct of inhibitory control cannot be considered a unitary entity. Second, differences in maternal education were not predictive of either inhibitory control or fluency scores. However, children's attention control performance varied as a function of culture, and the direction of these cultural effects differed by whether the target outcome involved performance accuracy versus efficiency as an output. Findings also confirmed the previously documented intensive developmental improvement in preschoolers' inhibitory control during this period, influencing measures of response suppression and particularly attention control. Finally, the results further stress the importance of individual differences effects in trait anxiety on attention control efficiency across cultures.

Change my body, change my mind: the effects of illusory ownership of an outgroup hand on implicit attitudes toward that outgroup

The effect of multisensory-induced changes on body-ownership and self-awareness using bodily illusions has been well established. More recently, experimental manipulation of bodily illusions have been combined with social cognition tasks to investigate whether changes in body-ownership can in turn change the way we perceive others. For example, experiencing ownership over a dark-skin rubber hand reduces implicit bias against dark-skin groups. Several studies have also shown that processing of skin color and facial features play an important role in judgements of racial typicality and racial categorization independently and in an additive manner. The present study aimed at examining whether using multisensory stimulation to induce feelings of body-ownership over a dark-skin rubber hand would lead to an increase in positive attitudes toward black faces. We here show, that the induced ownership of a body-part of a different skin color affected the participants' implicit attitudes when processing facial features, in addition to the processing of skin color shown previously. Furthermore, when the levels of pre-existing attitudes toward black people were taken into account, the effect of the rubber hand illusion on the post-stimulation implicit attitudes was only significant for those participants who had a negative initial attitude toward black people, with no significant effects found for those who had positive initial attitudes toward black people. Taken together, our findings corroborate the hypothesis that the representation of the self and its relation to others, as given to us by body-related multisensory processing, is critical in maintaining but also in changing social attitudes.

Research in culture and psychology: past lessons and future challenges

Since the dawn of psychology as a science, conceptual and methodological questions have accompanied research at the intersection of culture and psychology. We review some of these questions using two dominant concepts-independent versus interdependent social orientation and analytic versus holistic cognitive style. Studying the relationship between culture and psychology can be difficult due to sampling restrictions and response biases. Since these challenges have been mastered, a wealth of research has accumulated on how culture influences cognition, emotion, and the self. Building on this work, we outline a set of new challenges for culture and psychology. Such challenges include questions about conceptual clarity, within-cultural and subcultural variations (e.g., variations due to social class), differentiation and integration of processes at the group versus individual level of analysis, modeling of how cultural processes unfold over time, and integration of insights from etic and emic methodological approaches. We review emerging work addressing these challenges, proposing that future research on culture and psychology is more exciting than ever. WIREs Cogn Sci 2014, 5:1-14. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1267 CONFLICT OF INTEREST: The authors have declared no conflicts of interest for this article. For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.

Does self-construal predict activity in the social brain network? A genetic moderation effect

Neural activity in the social brain network varies across individuals with different cultural traits and different genetic polymorphisms. It remains unknown whether a specific genetic polymorphism may influence the association between cultural traits and neural activity in the social brain network. We tested whether the serotonin transporter promoter polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) affects the association between self-construals and neural activity involved in reflection of personal attributes of oneself and a significant other (i.e., mother). Using functional MRI, we scanned Chinese adults with short/short (s/s) or long/long (l/l) variants of the 5-HTTLPR during reflection of personal attributes of oneself and one's mother. We found that, while s/s and l/l genotype groups did not differ significantly in self-construals measured by the Self-Construal Scale, the relationship between self-construal scores and neural responses to reflection of oneself and mother was significantly different between the two genotype groups. Specifically, l/l but not s/s genotype group showed significant association between self-construal scores and activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, bilateral middle frontal cortex, temporoparietal junction, insula and hippocampus during reflection on mental attributes of oneself and mother. Our findings suggest that a specific genetic polymorphism may interact with a cultural trait to shape the neural substrates underlying social cognition.

Essentializing the binary self: individualism and collectivism in cultural neuroscience

Within the emerging field of cultural neuroscience (CN) one branch of research focuses on the neural underpinnings of "individualistic/Western" vs. "collectivistic/Eastern" self-views. These studies uncritically adopt essentialist assumptions from classic cross-cultural research, mainly following the tradition of Markus and Kitayama (1991), into the domain of functional neuroimaging. In this perspective article we analyze recent publications and conference proceedings of the 18th Annual Meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (2012) and problematize the essentialist and simplistic understanding of "culture" in these studies. Further, we argue against the binary structure of the drawn "cultural" comparisons and their underlying Eurocentrism. Finally we scrutinize whether valuations within the constructed binarities bear the risk of constructing and reproducing a postcolonial, orientalist argumentation pattern.

Memory and self-neuroscientific landscapes

Relations between memory and the self are framed from a number of perspectives-developmental aspects, forms of memory, interrelations between memory and the brain, and interactions between the environment and memory. The self is seen as dividable into more rudimentary and more advanced aspects. Special emphasis is laid on memory systems and within them on episodic autobiographical memory which is seen as a pure human form of memory that is dependent on a proper ontogenetic development and shaped by the social environment, including culture. Self and episodic autobiographical memory are seen as interlocked in their development and later manifestation. Aside from content-based aspects of memory, time-based aspects are seen along two lines-the division between short-term and long-term memory and anterograde-future-oriented-and retrograde-past-oriented memory. The state dependency of episodic autobiographical is stressed and implications of it-for example, with respect to the occurrence of false memories and forensic aspects-are outlined. For the brain level, structural networks for encoding, consolidation, storage, and retrieval are discussed both by referring to patient data and to data obtained in normal participants with functional brain imaging methods. It is elaborated why descriptions from patients with functional or dissociative amnesia are particularly apt to demonstrate the facets in which memory, self, and personal temporality are interwoven.