Paper Info
Title
Cultural differences in neurocognitive mechanisms underlying believing
Abstract
Believing as a fundamental mental process influences other cognitive/affective processes and behavior. However, it is unclear whether believing engages distinct neurocognitive mechanisms in people with different cultural experiences. We addressed this issue by scanning Chinese and Danish adults using functional MRI during believing judgments on personality traits of oneself and a celebrity. Drift diffusion model analyses of behavioral performances revealed that speed/quality of information acquisition varied between believing judgments on positive and negative personality traits in Chinese but not in Danes. Chinese adopted a more conservative strategy of decision-making during celebrity- than self-believing judgments whereas an opposite pattern was observed in Danes. Non-decisional processes were longer for celebrity- than for self-believing in Danes but not in Chinese. Believing judgments activated the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in both cultural groups but elicited stronger left anterior insular and ventral frontal activations in Chinese. Greater mPFC activity in Chinese was associated with longer duration of non-decision processes during believing-judgments, which predicted slower retrieval of self-related information in a memory test. Greater mPFC activity in Danes, however, was associated with a less degree of adopting a conservative strategy during believing judgments, which predicted faster retrieval of self-related information. Our findings highlight different neurocognitive processes engaged in believing between individuals from East Asian and Western cultures.
Year
DOI
Venue
2022
10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.118954
NeuroImage
Keywords
DocType
Volume
Anterior insula,Believe,Culture,Functional MRI,Self,Think
Journal
250
ISSN
Citations 
PageRank 
1053-8119
0
0.34
References 
Authors
5
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Tianyu Gao100.34
Xiaochun Han200.34
Dan Bang300.34
Shihui Han413218.96