Paige Laura E, Ksander John C, Johndro Hunter A, Gutchess Angela H
Brandeis University, USA.
Brandeis University, USA.
Cortex. 2017 Jun;91:250-261. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2017.01.018. Epub 2017 Feb 3.
Research suggests that culture influences how people perceive the world, which extends to memory specificity, or how much perceptual detail is remembered. The present study investigated cross-cultural differences (Americans vs East Asians) at the time of encoding in the neural correlates of specific versus general memory formation. Participants encoded photos of everyday items in the scanner and 48 h later completed a surprise recognition test. The recognition test consisted of same (i.e., previously seen in scanner), similar (i.e., same name, different features), or new photos (i.e., items not previously seen in scanner). For Americans compared to East Asians, we predicted greater activation in the hippocampus and right fusiform for specific memory at recognition, as these regions were implicated previously in encoding perceptual details. Results revealed that East Asians activated the left fusiform and left hippocampus more than Americans for specific versus general memory. Follow-up analyses ruled out alternative explanations of retrieval difficulty and familiarity for this pattern of cross-cultural differences at encoding. Results overall suggest that culture should be considered as another individual difference that affects memory specificity and modulates neural regions underlying these processes.
研究表明，文化会影响人们对世界的认知方式，这延伸到记忆特异性，即记住了多少感知细节。本研究调查了在特定记忆与一般记忆形成的神经关联编码阶段的跨文化差异（美国人与东亚人）。参与者在扫描仪中对日常物品的照片进行编码，48小时后完成一项突击识别测试。识别测试包括相同（即之前在扫描仪中见过）、相似（即名称相同、特征不同）或新照片（即之前未在扫描仪中见过的物品）。与东亚人相比，对于美国人，我们预测在识别时海马体和右侧梭状回在特定记忆方面会有更强的激活，因为这些区域之前与编码感知细节有关。结果显示，对于特定记忆与一般记忆，东亚人比美国人更多地激活了左侧梭状回和左侧海马体。后续分析排除了对这种编码阶段跨文化差异模式的检索困难和熟悉度的其他解释。总体结果表明，文化应被视为影响记忆特异性并调节这些过程背后神经区域的另一个个体差异因素。
