Goh Joshua O, Chee Michael W, Tan Jiat Chow, Venkatraman Vinod, Hebrank Andrew, Leshikar Eric D, Jenkins Lucas, Sutton Bradley P, Gutchess Angela H, Park Denise C
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA.
Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2007 Mar;7(1):44-52. doi: 10.3758/cabn.7.1.44.
Behavioral differences in the visual processing of objects and backgrounds as a function of cultural group are well documented. Recent neuroimaging evidence also points to cultural differences in neural activation patterns. Compared with East Asians, Westerners' visual processing is more object focused, and they activate neural structures that reflect this bias for objects. In a recent adaptation study, East Asian older adults showed an absence of an object-processing area but normal adaptation for background areas. In the present study, 75 young and old adults (half East Asian and half Western) were tested in an fMR-adaptation study to examine differences in object and background processing as well as object-background binding. We found equivalent background processing in the parahippocampal gyrus in all four groups, diminished binding processes in the hippocampus in elderly East Asians and Westerners, and diminished object processing in elderly versus young adults in the lateral occipital complex. Moreover, elderly East Asians showed significantly less adaptation response in the object areas than did elderly Westerners. These findings demonstrate the malleability of perceptual processes as a result of differences in cohort-specific experiences or in cultural exposure over time.
作为文化群体的一个函数，在物体和背景的视觉处理方面的行为差异已有充分记录。最近的神经影像学证据也表明神经激活模式存在文化差异。与东亚人相比，西方人的视觉处理更以物体为中心，并且他们激活反映这种对物体偏好的神经结构。在最近一项适应研究中，东亚老年人没有表现出物体处理区域，但背景区域的适应正常。在本研究中，75名年轻人和老年人（一半东亚人，一半西方人）在一项功能磁共振成像适应研究中接受测试，以检查物体和背景处理以及物体-背景绑定方面的差异。我们发现，所有四组在海马旁回中的背景处理相当，东亚和西方老年人海马中的绑定过程减弱，枕外侧复合体中老年人与年轻人相比物体处理减弱。此外，东亚老年人在物体区域的适应反应明显少于西方老年人。这些发现证明了由于特定队列经历或长期文化接触的差异，感知过程具有可塑性。
