Reading direction and culture | Nature Reviews Neuroscience

Access through your institution Buy or subscribe As we discussed in our recent article (Culture-sensitive neural substrates of human cognition: a transcultural neuroimaging approach. _Nature

Rev. Neurosci._ 9, 646–654 (2008))1, neural activities of the human brain, in association with specific cognitive functions, are modulated by social experience and sociocultural contexts.

This is not surprising given that neural plasticity has been well documented and acknowledged by neuroscientists. Reading constitutes a major part of human visual experience and thus

generates a strong influence on cognitive processes involved in visuospatial tasks, as summarized by Kazandjian and Chokron (Paying attention to reading direction. _Nature Rev. Neurosci._ 20

Nov 2008 (doi:10.1038/nrn2456-c1))2. Noting that people from different cultures differ in the direction in which they read (either left-to-right or right-to-left), Kazandjian and Chokron

asked further to what degree reading direction modulates the neuroanatomical substrates that underlie the visual skills that are associated with reading. A broad sense of culture is “the

shared way of life of a group of people” (Ref. 3), and thus culture should cover reading habits such as reading direction too. What kind of cognitive function might be affected by reading

direction? Spatial representation and spatial attention may be prime candidates, particularly when these cognitive processes operate along the horizontal meridian of the visual field. More

specifically, a left-to-right reading direction may bias attention towards the left visual field, whereas a right-to-left reading direction may facilitate attention towards the right visual

field. If this effect were neurally relevant, one might now expect stronger neural activity associated with reading in the respective side, be it right or left. Moreover, it would be

interesting to investigate how reading direction interacts with other aspects of culture in modulating the functional organization of the human brain. This could be done by comparing two

cultural groups with the same reading direction or two cultural groups with different reading directions. However, it may be difficult to disentangle this effect from others, because reading

direction may be confounded with other aspects of culture. For instance, people who are different in other aspects of culture but who have the same reading direction show distinct neural

mechanisms associated with perceptual and attentional processing4,5. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution ACCESS OPTIONS Access through your institution

Subscribe to this journal Receive 12 print issues and online access $189.00 per year only $15.75 per issue Learn more Buy this article * Purchase on SpringerLink * Instant access to full

article PDF Buy now Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout ADDITIONAL ACCESS OPTIONS: * Log in * Learn about institutional subscriptions * Read our FAQs *

Contact customer support REFERENCES * Han, S. & Northoff, G. Culture-sensitive neural substrates of human cognition: a transcultural neuroimaging approach. _Nature Rev. Neurosci._ 9,

646–654 (2008). Article  CAS  Google Scholar  * Kazandjian, S. & Chokron, S. Paying attention to reading direction. _Nature Rev. Neurosci._ 20 Nov 2008 (doi: 10.1038/nrn2456-c1). Article

  Google Scholar  * Bery, J. W., Poortinga, Y. H., Segall, M. H. & Dasen, P. R. _Cross-cultural psychology: Research and applications_ (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK, 2007).

Google Scholar  * Gutchess, A. H., Welsh, R. C., Boduroglu, A. & Park, D. C. Cultural differences in neural function associated with object processing. _Cogn. Affect. Behav. Neurosci._

6, 102–109 (2006). Article  Google Scholar  * Hedden, T., Ketay, S., Aron, A., Markus, H. R. & Gabrieli, D. E. Cultural influences on neural substrates of attentional control. _Psychol.

Sci._ 19, 12–17 (2008). Article  Google Scholar  * Kitayama, S., Duffy, S., Kawamura, T. & Larsen, J. T. Perceiving an object and its context in different cultures: a cultural look at

new look. _Psychol. Sci._ 14, 201–206 (2003). Article  Google Scholar  * Nisbett, R. E. _The geography of thought_ (Free Press, New York, 2003). Google Scholar  * Markus, H. R. &

Kitayama, S. Culture and the self: implication for cognition, emotion and motivation. _Psychol. Rev._ 98, 224–253 (1991). Article  Google Scholar  * Zhu, Y., Zhang, Li., Fan, J. & Han.

S. Neural basis of cultural influence on self representation. _Neuroimage_ 34, 1310–1317 (2007). Article  Google Scholar  Download references AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS *

Shihui Han is at the Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China. [email protected], Shihui Han * Georg Northoff is at the Department of Psychiatry,

Otto-von-Guericke University of Magdeburg, 39120 Magdeburg, Germany. [email protected], Georg Northoff Authors * Shihui Han View author publications You can also search for

this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Georg Northoff View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions

ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Han, S., Northoff, G. Reading direction and culture. _Nat Rev Neurosci_ 9, 965 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2456-c2 Download citation * Issue Date:

December 2008 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2456-c2 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Get shareable link Sorry, a shareable

link is not currently available for this article. Copy to clipboard Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative