Cross Cultural Comparison of Emotional Functional Networks

Experience and expression of Emotions have cultural influences. In behavioural experiments, Western and Eastern cultures are shown to have differences in emotional experience and expression. Western culture promotes the expression of emotional experience, whereas, in Eastern culture, emotional expressions are not very explicit and are sometimes restricted by social norms. However, there is limited evidence for this observation in terms of brain activity. In this study, we analyzed two different datasets, the DEAP data for the Western population and the DENS data for the Eastern population, focusing specifically on happy and sad emotions. We calculated functional connectivity among EEG electrodes using phase locking value and found that activity in the frontal electrodes is more pronounced in Eastern culture compared to Western culture. Meanwhile, activity in the centro-parietal electrodes is more dominant in Western culture. Activity in the frontal brain regions is high during emotion regulation. On the other hand, activity in the centro-parietal regions is more associated with sensori-motor activity.