Department of Psychology, Peking University, 5 Yiheyuan Road, Beijing 100871, PR China.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2012 Feb;7(2):222-9. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsr002. Epub 2011 Mar 7.
Our recent work showed that close relationships result in shared cognitive and neural representations of the self and one's mother in collectivistic individuals (Zhu et al., 2007, Neuroimage, 34, 1310-7). However, it remains unknown whether close others, such as mother, father and best friend, are differentially represented in collectivistic brains. Here, using functional magnetic resonance imaging and a trait judgment task, we showed evidence that, while trait judgments of the self and mother generated comparable activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) and anterior cingulate (ACC) of Chinese adults, trait judgments of mother induced greater MPFC/ACC activity than trait judgments of father and best friend. Our results suggest that, while neural representations of the self and mother overlapped in the MPFC/ACC, close others such as mother, father and best friend are unequally represented in the MPFC/ACC of collectivistic brains.
我们最近的工作表明，在集体主义者中，亲密关系会导致自我和母亲的认知和神经表征共享（Zhu 等人，2007 年，Neuroimage，34，1310-7）。然而，目前尚不清楚亲密的他人，如母亲、父亲和最好的朋友，是否在集体主义者的大脑中得到不同的体现。在这里，我们使用功能磁共振成像和特质判断任务，表明了这样的证据，即虽然中国成年人对自我和母亲的特质判断在中前额叶皮层（MPFC）和前扣带皮层（ACC）产生了相当的活动，但对母亲的特质判断比对父亲和最好朋友的特质判断诱导了更大的 MPFC/ACC 活动。我们的研究结果表明，虽然自我和母亲的神经表征在 MPFC/ACC 中重叠，但在集体主义者的 MPFC/ACC 中，亲密的他人，如母亲、父亲和最好的朋友，并没有平等地体现出来。
