Culture shapes spontaneous brain dynamics – Shared versus idiosyncratic neural features among Chinese versus Canadian subjects

ABSTRACT

Environmental factors, such as culture, are known to shape individual variation in brain activity including spontaneous activity, but less is known about their population-level effects. Eastern and Western cultures differ strongly in their cultural norms about relationships between individuals. For example, the collectivism, interdependence and tightness of Eastern cultures relative to the individualism, independence and looseness of Western cultures, promote interpersonal connectedness and coordination. Do such cultural contexts therefore influence the group-level variability of their cultural members’ spontaneous brain activity? Using novel methods adapted from studies of inter-subject neural synchrony, we compare the group-level variability of resting state EEG dynamics in Chinese and Canadian samples. We observe that Chinese subjects show significantly higher inter-subject correlation and lower inter-subject distance in their EEG power spectra than Canadian subjects, as well as lower variability in theta power and alpha peak frequency. We demonstrate, for the first time, different relationships among subjects’ resting state brain dynamics in Chinese and Canadian samples. These results point to more idiosyncratic neural dynamics among Canadian participants, compared with more shared neural features in Chinese participants.

KEYWORDS:

• Culture
• EEG
• resting state activity
• inter-subject variability;
• spectral dynamics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

JX and GN conceived the idea. JX, SWT and GN wrote the manuscript together. A. Wolff, PQ, YZ, XS, JC, VK, A. Wolman, DS, JI, YW, and AS provided the main and replication EEG and Self-Consciousness Scale datasets (except China 2), and reviewed and edited the original draft. SWT provided advice on data analysis methods. SWT and JX analyzed the data and visualized the results with supervising and structuring by GN.

Data and code availability statements

The datasets and codes used in this study are available from the corresponding authors via e-mail on request.

Supplementary data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/17470919.2023.2278199

Additional information

Funding

JX gratefully acknowledges funding from the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2021M702745), and support from the China Scholarship Council (CSC, No. 201806380154) during her visit to University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research. PQ acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation of China (31771249, 31971032), the Major Program of National Social Science Foundation of China (grant number 18ZDA293), Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (2020A1515011250), Key Realm R&D Program of Guangzhou (202007030005) and Key Realm R&D Program of Guangdong Province (2019B030335001). GN has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation under the Specific Grant Agreement No. 785907 (Human Brain Project SGA2). GN is grateful for funding provided by UMRF, uOBMRI, CIHR (201103MOP-244752-BSBCECA-179644; 201103CCI-248496-CCI-CECA), the Canada-UK Artificial Intelligence Initiative (ES/T01279X/1), and PSI.