The human brain, a grayish matter that weighs approximately three pounds, looks, feels and seems uniform regardless of whose head it inhabits.
However, new research has shown that though the physical makeup of the brain may be similar, cognitive functions vary vastly between cultures.
According to a Newsweek article, a 2006 study found that native Chinese speakers use a different area of the brain to do simple math as opposed to native English speakers, who process the equation in a separate region. Both cultures use Arabic numerals in calculations.
The English speakers use language circuits to process the numbers, whereas the native Chinese speakers use the circuits that process visual and spatial information — something the article relates back to the use of the abacus, a Chinese invention.
The abacus is credited by some with teaching children how to better understand compound numbers, because the beads can represent concrete units up to ten, as well as providing a physical counterpart for mental calculations, which can encourage children’s confidence in performing mental math later in life.
“One would think that neural processes involving basic mathematical computations are universal, [but they] seem to be culture-specific,” said Nalini Ambady, a professor of psychology at Tufts University. Ambady was also a recipient of an Excellence in Mentoring Award from Harvard University
Another oddity focuses on the medial prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain that, for Western participants, represents the self and personal characteristics. But for Chinese volunteers, the cortex also showed activity when they were presented traits belonging to their mother.
Explanations for this difference include the individualism-collectivism split, which details how East Asian cultures place higher priority on the collective whole, as opposed to Western cultures that value the individual over a community.
For example, when given a complex scene, Western participants will focus on singular objects, while East Asians are much more likely to focus on the context and view the situation holistically.
So what do these findings mean? For the former, it implies that culture not only impacts one’s perspective on the world, but also how people form various parts of the world process everyday tasks. The latter is provides more evidence in support of theories that already exist.
“I also think it has something to do with the nature versus nurture theory. [It’s] not only genetics [that]
Influence how you perceive things and who you are,” said freshman neurobiology and physiology major Felicia Bartlett.
There are also links to pain. Kavita Sharma, a physical main management and rehabilitation doctor at PRC Associates in Florida, also noted consistencies among patients.
At her private practice, patients are asked to rate their levels of pain on a one to 10 scale. Sharma can “almost guess” what number they will pick.
“I can tell you anecdotally that my patients definitely have different reactions to pain, and [these reactions] vary among cultures,” she said.
There is also current debate as to whether cultural neuroscience contributes any new insight into how humans operate, since the individualism-collectivism split and the nature versus nurture theory are hardly innovative concepts.
Ambady believes that the field does offer additional understanding. Some discoveries, such as the individualism-collectivism split, she believes “attest to the strength of the overlap between self [and others] in collectivistic cultures and the separation in individualistic cultures.”
“It’s definitely worth looking into,” Sharma said. “I work with pain in terms of psychology and neuropathy, and people of different cultures have different reactions to pain, even if it is physically or structurally the same.”
Bartlett is also in agreement. “I’m sure it has something new to offer science, but it can also be additional evidence for anthropology.”
