東亞和西方大腦靜息態功能連接的文化差異

Abstract

越來越多的研究發現大腦結構和功能存在與心理差異相對應的跨文化差異。 具體而言，東亞與西方各自的社會文化環境被認為影響了東亞族群和西方族群的「整體導向處理風格」與「分析導向處理風格」的神經機制。 然而，在大腦靜息狀態功能連接 (rsFC) 中是否存在與文化相關的差異仍有待探究。 在這項研究中，我們分析了 49 名台灣人（24 名女性，平均 ( SD ) 年齡 = 23.18(2.32)）和 45 名美國人（24名女性，平均（SD）年齡=21.60(3.33)）樣本的度中心性（degree centrality）結果，即每個節點 (node) 與其他節點的連接強度。樣本來源為受試者於各自所在地磁振造影中心的3T 西門子 PRISMA 掃描儀（相同型號）中接受靜息態功能 MRI 的影像採樣。我們發現，在全腦單變量對比結果中，並沒有存在美國人和台灣人之間不同的體素度中心性(voxel-wise degree centrality)。然而，在感興趣區(Region of Interest, ROI) 的度中心性 t 值分佈評估中顯示，美國人在 預設 (DMN) 、控制和邊緣 (Limbic) 網絡中整體較高的幅度集中在數量較少的體素 ，而台灣人在這些大腦區域的分佈較大，幅度較低。我們推測這些發現為特定文化資訊處理方式相對應的基線大腦功能連接性差異提供了有限的支持。西方分析思考方式強調一次保持一種具有主導性的大腦功能狀態，從而導致形成與其他區域具有單一更強共振的神經網絡中樞 (hubs)。相較下，東亞整體思考風格強調特定時間範圍大腦狀態之間的聯繫，從而導致大腦中更多的分佈式中樞和非同步活動。

An increasing number of studies demonstrate the presence of cross-cultural differences in brain structure and function that correspond to psychological differences. Specifically, neural correlates of holistic vs. analytic processing styles in East Asians and Westerners, respectively, are thought to reflect the influence of the respective sociocultural environments. Nevertheless, whether culture-related differences are present in brain resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) remains unclear. In this study, we examined degree centrality, the strength of connection of each node with other nodes, in rsFC of 49 Taiwanese (24 females, mean (SD) age = 23.18 (2.32)) and 45 Americans (24 females, mean (SD) age =21.60 (3.33). Participants underwent resting-state functional MRI in identical 3T Siemens PRISMA scanners across sites sampling the local communities. Whole-brain univariate contrasts did not find different voxel-wise degree centralities between Americans and Taiwanese. However, evaluation of degree centrality t-value distributions in regions-of-interest revealed generally higher magnitudes in lower numbers of voxels for the Americans in DMN, Control and Limbic Network in contrast to lower magnitudes with greater spread across voxels for Taiwanese across these brain regions. We speculate that these findings provide limited support to reflect baseline brain functional connectivity differences corresponding to culture-specific information processing styles. Western analytic mindset emphasizes maintaining one dominant functional brain state at a time, leading to the formation of neural network hubs with singular stronger resonance with other areas. By contrast, East Asian holistic thinking emphasizes linkages between brain states at a given time, resulting in more distributed hubs in the brain with more asynchronous activities.