Gavazzi Gioele, Noferini Chiara, Benedetti Viola, Cotugno Maria, Giovannelli Fabio, Caldara Roberto, Mascalchi Mario, Viggiano Maria Pia
Department of Neuroscience, Psychology, Drug Research and Child's Health (NEUROFARBA), University of Florence, 50135 Florence, Italy.
European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy, University of Florence, Sesto Fiorentino, 50019 Florence, Italy.
Brain Sci. 2023 Jun 3;13(6):907. doi: 10.3390/brainsci13060907.
Culture greatly influences our attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, affecting how we communicate and make decisions. There is an ongoing debate regarding the belief that people from Eastern cultures possess greater self-control abilities when compared to people from Western cultures. In this study, we conducted a meta-analysis using the Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) algorithm to compare 30 studies (719 subjects, 373 foci) that used fMRI to investigate the performance in Go-Nogo and Stop Signal Tasks of participants from Western and/or Eastern countries. Our meta-analysis found differences between the networks activated in Eastern and Western culture participants. The right prefrontal cortex showed distinct patterns, with the Inferior Frontal gyrus more active in the Eastern group and the middle and superior frontal gyri more active in the Western group. Our findings suggest that Eastern culture subjects have a higher tendency to activate brain regions involved in proactive inhibitory control, while Western culture subjects rely more on reactive inhibitory brain regions during cognitive control tasks. This implies that proactive inhibition may play a crucial role in promoting the collective and interdependent behavior typical of Eastern cultures, while reactive inhibition may be more important for efficient cognitive control in subjects of Western cultures that prioritize individualism and independence.
文化极大地影响着我们的态度、信仰和行为，影响着我们的沟通方式和决策方式。关于与西方文化背景的人相比，东方文化背景的人具有更强的自我控制能力这一观点，一直存在着争论。在本研究中，我们使用激活可能性估计（ALE）算法进行了一项荟萃分析，以比较30项研究（719名受试者，373个研究焦点），这些研究使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）来调查来自西方和/或东方国家的参与者在“是-否”任务和停止信号任务中的表现。我们的荟萃分析发现了东西方文化参与者激活的神经网络之间的差异。右侧前额叶皮质呈现出不同的模式，东方组的额下回更活跃，西方组的额中回和额上回更活跃。我们的研究结果表明，东方文化背景的受试者在主动抑制控制中激活涉及的脑区的倾向更高，而西方文化背景的受试者在认知控制任务中更多地依赖反应性抑制脑区。这意味着主动抑制可能在促进东方文化典型的集体和相互依赖行为中发挥关键作用，而反应性抑制对于优先考虑个人主义和独立性的西方文化受试者的有效认知控制可能更为重要。
