The impact of culture on neuropsychological performance: A global social cognition study across 12 countries
Authors: Quesque François , Coutrot Antoine , Cox Sharon , de Souza Leonardo Cruz , Baez Sandra , Mulet‐Perreault Hannah , Flanagan Emma , Neely‐Prado Alejandra , Clarens Maria Florencia , Cassimiro Luciana , Kemp Jennifer , Botzung Anne , Cosseddu Maura , Cardona Juan F. , Trujillo Catalina , Grisales Johan S. , Crivelli Lucia , Musa Gada , Delgado Carolina , Magrath Nahuel , Calandri Ismael Luis , Sedeno Lucas , Fittipaldi Sol , Garcia Adolfo M. , Moreno Fermin , Indakoetxea Begoña , Benussi Alberto , Moura Millena Millena Vieira Brandão , Morozova Anna , Prianishnikova Galina , Iakovlena Olga , Veryugina Nadezda , Philippi Nathalie , Zhao Lina , Liang Junhua , Duning Thomas , Barandiaran Myriam , Huepe David , Johnen Andreas , Lyashenko Elena , Allegri Ricardo F. , Wang Fen , Borroni Barbara , Yassuda Monica Sanches , Lillo Patricia , Hudon Carol , Teixeira Antônio Lúcio , Caramelli Paulo , Slachevsky Andrea , Blanc Frédéric , Lebouvier Thibaud , Pasquier Florence , Ibanez Agustin , Hornberger Michael , Bertoux Maxime 
Published: December 2020

Background

Decades of researches aiming to unveil truths about human neuropsychology may have instead unveil facts appropriate to only a fraction of the world’s population: those living in western educated rich democratic nations (Muthukrishna et al., 2020 Psych Sci). So far, most studies were conducted as if education and cultural assumptions on which neuropsychology is based were universals and applied everywhere in the world. The importance given to sociological or cultural factors is thus still relatively ignored. With the growth of international clinical studies on dementia, we believe that documenting the potential inter‐cultural differences at stake in a common neuropsychological assessment is an essential topic. This study thus aimed to explore these potential variations in two classical tasks used in neuropsychology that are composing the mini‐SEA (Bertoux et al., 2012 JNNP), i.e. a reduced version of the well‐known Ekman faces (FER), where one has to recognize facial emotions, and a modified version of the Faux Pas test (mFP), where one has to detect and explain social faux.

Method

The data of 573 control participants were collected through the Social Cognition & FTLD Network, an international consortium investigating social cognitive changes in dementia covering 3 continents (18 research centres in 12 countries). Impact of demographic factors and the effect of countries on performance (mini‐SEA, FER, mFP) were explored through linear mixed‐effects models.

Result

Age, education and gender were found to significantly impact the performance of the mini‐SEA subtests. Significant and important variations across the countries were also retrieved, with England having the highest performance for all scores. When controlling for demographical factors, differences within countries explained between 14% (mFP) and 24% (FER) of the variance at the mini‐SEA. These variations were not explained by any economical or sociological metrics.

Conclusion

Important variations of performance were observed across the 12 countries of the consortium, showing how cultural differences may critically impact neuropsychological performance in international studies.