Abstract
Behavioral studies suggest that self-construals play a key role in modulation of cognitive processing styles, leading to a context dependent or independent mode of processing. The current work investigated whether the neural activity in the extrastriate cortex underlying global/local perception of compound stimuli can be modulated by self-construal priming that shifts self-construal towards the Eastern interdependent or Western independent self in Chinese participants. After primed with independent or interdependent self-construals, subjects were asked to discriminate global/local letters in compound stimuli while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. We found that, while the independent self-construal priming resulted in enlarged P1 (70–130ms) amplitude to local than global targets at lateral occipital electrodes, a reverse pattern was observed after the interdependent self-construal priming. More over, N1 (130–180ms) amplitudes tended to be larger in the control priming condition than the interdependent or independent self-construal priming condition at lateral occipital electrodes. The ERP results provide evidence that self-construal priming modulates visual perceptual processing in the extrastriate cortex.
National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project 30630025, 30225026, and 30328016)