Chennai: A new study has claimed that our brain responds differently when we talk to a person of a different socioeconomic background from our own compared with when we speak to someone whose background is similar.
In the study, published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 39 pairs of participants had a conversation with each other while wearing headsets that tracked brain activity.
According to researchers from UCL and Yale University, among pairs of people who had very different socioeconomic backgrounds—calculated according to education level and family income—there was a higher level of activity in an area of the frontal lobe called the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The area is associated with speech production and rule-based language as well as cognitive and attentional control.
The findings support previous research suggesting that frontal lobe systems play a role in detecting bias and helping us regulate our behaviour to avoid bias expression. The increased activity in the left frontal lobe was observed in both participants and was more alike than the brain responses of participants talking to someone of a similar background.
In a questionnaire following their task, participants paired with people of different backgrounds reported a slightly higher level of anxiety and effort during their conversation than those in similar-background pairs.
Professor Joy Hirsch, UCL Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering at Yale, said, “For the first time, we have identified the neural mechanisms involved in social interactions between people of different backgrounds.”
“I believe our findings offer a hopeful message. We know that humans can have positive social encounters with others who are different. Now we have the neurobiological basis—our brains have apparently developed a frontal lobe system that helps us deal with diversity,” he added.
Participants’ brain activity was tracked using a new technique called functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), which monitors blood flow and blood oxygenation by measuring changes in near-infrared light and involves wearing only a light headset. Previous studies have involved using MRI scans, which require patients to lie down and keep still, making conversation difficult.