Cross-cultural differences in visual object and background processing in the infant brain

Autor(en)

Moritz Köster, Anna Andrea Bánki, Daiki Yamasaki, Masaharu Kato, Shoji Itakura, Stefanie Hoehl

Abstrakt

Human visual cognition differs profoundly between cultures. A key finding is that visual processing is tuned toward focal elements of a visual scene in Western cultures (US and Europe) and toward the background in Eastern cultures (Asia). Although some evidence for cultural differences exists for young children, to date, the ontogenetic origins of cultural differences in human visual cognition have not been unveiled. This study explores early cross-cultural differences in human visual processing, by tracking the neural signatures for object versus background elements of a visual scene in the electroencephalogram (EEG) of 12-month-old infants, in Vienna (Austria; a Western culture; n = 35) and Kyoto (Japan; an Eastern culture; n = 36). Specifically, we separated neural signatures by presenting object and background at different stimulation frequencies (5.67 and 8.5 Hz). Results show that human visual processing is different between cultures from early on. We found that infants from Vienna showed a higher object signal, in contrast to infants from Kyoto, who showed an accentuated background signal. This early emergence of cultural differences in human vision may be explained in part by early social experiences: In a separate interaction phase, mothers from Vienna pointed out object (versus background) elements more often than mothers from Kyoto. To conclude, with a cross-cultural developmental neuroscience approach, we reveal that cross-cultural differences in visual processing of object and background are already present in the first year after birth, which is much earlier than previously thought.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Psychologie der Entwicklung und Bildung

Externe Organisation(en)

Doshisha University, Freie Universität Berlin (FU), Universität Regensburg (UR), Kyoto University

Journal

Imaging Neuroscience

Band

1

Seiten

1-11

Anzahl der Seiten

11

ISSN

2837-6056

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1162/imag_a_00038

Publikationsdatum

12-2023

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

501005 Entwicklungspsychologie, 301401 Hirnforschung

Link zum Portal

https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/de/publications/crosscultural-differences-in-visual-object-and-background-processing-in-the-infant-brain(4b5aca19-6c8a-4944-8c98-2428e459ad80).html