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Does Brain Biology Differ Across Cultures?

Jul 5, 20244 min read

By Sorana Bucseneanu


The concept of culture refers to the different belief systems, behaviors, traditions, languages, practices and social structures of particular groups of people. These cultural contexts are built on shared views and principles about the world and consist of a shared environment, systems, institutions, values, and interactions (1). From simple traditions like knocking eggs on Easter or smashing plates at weddings, to starkly different views on complex topics like morality or religion, people have been brought up in diverse cultures which led to different, unique experiences . Beyond influencing our experiences, these differences also impact the way we act, think, and feel. Empirical research in cultural psychology and neuroscience suggests that  sociocultural contexts play a key role in shaping people’s behavior, traits, and other psychological processes. But to what extent are cultural differences reflected at a neural level?


A key cultural difference that has been observed and established by research is that while Western cultures tend to be more individualistic, focusing to a greater extent on the self, Eastern cultures are more collectivistic, meaning that people tend to value the collective good and well-being more. One study, for example, suggests  that the cultural context has a powerful role in shaping the experience of emotion (2). According to Wang (2018), memory recollections in Western societies are more self-focused, emphasizing one’s own subjective experiences. Meanwhile, East Asian autobiographical memory is centered around others. Eye-tracking studies further confirm this idea, showing how cultural differences modulate the processing of visual information (3).  For instance, it was found that when visualizing complex scenes, East Asians tend to focus more on contexts, while Westerners focus more on specific objects . This reflects that  Western cultures value independence, so individuals from these cultural contexts tend to be more analytical, focusing more on specific visual stimuli, compared to East Asians who demonstrate a more holistic way of processing the same information. 


To study the neural substrate of cultural differences, researchers have been using a transcultural neuroimaging approach to study and compare the brain activity  of people from various cultural groups. The main benefit of this approach is that it allows researchers to establish associations between culture, including specific values or beliefs, and brain activity (4). While investigating  the neural basis of the representation of self versus  others, neuroscientists propose a cultural framework. In one study, researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) on Western and East Asians participants while performing a trait judgment task (5). In this exercise, they had to judge personality traits related either to themselves or others. For example, they were asked to state whether an adjective could be used to describe themselves, their mother, or other people (i.e. Bill Clinton for Western participants or Rongji Zhu for Chinese participants). Brain imaging results show increased activity in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex for both Western and East Asian participants during self-representation. 

Interestingly, however, while significant others were represented in the same brain area for East Asians, this was not the case for Western participants. This reflects observed behavioral differences between the two cultures, suggesting that the Western notion of an independent self is supported by specific neural substrates, whereas the East Asian interdependent tendency involves neural substrates that overlap between the self and close others. Additionally, to investigate whether this holds  for tasks related to face recognition, Sui and colleagues  (2009) recorded event-related potentials in British and Chinese participants as they were judging the orientation of their own face versus  a familiar face (6). As distinguishing between self and others is a key socio-cognitive process that influences social interactions, determining its neural substrate is crucial as it can uncover the mechanisms involved in self-recognition and the recognition of others . As expected, British participants had faster response rates to their own faces compared to Chinese participants. Furthermore, a study conducted by Sui and colleagues (2013) showed that when Chinese and British participants are primed with cultural views opposite to their own, the typical cultural effects are diminished. This suggests that values ingrained by one’s cultural upbringing might play a causal  role  in these varied brain responses. 


Additionally, cultural factors have been shown to influence facial and emotional perception at a neural level. Harada and colleagues (2019) scanned participants using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while they were viewing images of emotional, fearful or angry faces of racial ingroup versus  outgroup members (7). Participants were grouped by their ethnicity: Japanese participants living in Japan, a collectivistic culture, as well as Caucasian-American and Japanese-American participants living in the United States, an individualistic culture. Results show that Japanese-American participants experienced stronger amygdala activation in response to Japanese faces, while Caucasian-American participants showed stronger amygdala activation in response to Caucasian faces. These results indicate that cultural orientations, particularly collectivistic tendencies, significantly influence how the brain processes emotional expressions from in-group versus out-group members.

In conclusion, cultural contexts significantly shape neural processes, impacting how individuals perceive, think, and feel. Research reveals that Western individualism and Eastern collectivism influence memory, emotion, and self-representation at the neural level. Transcultural neuroimaging studies demonstrate distinct brain activity patterns, such as variations in ventral medial prefrontal cortex activation and amygdala responses, reflecting cultural differences in self and other perception, as well as emotional processing. These findings underscore the profound influence of cultural upbringing on the brain, suggesting that sociocultural values play a key role in shaping neural substrates associated with cognitive and emotional functions.



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