Abstract: Self-construal refers to how people think about themselves and their relation to others. From collectivism-individualism perspective, East Asians and Westerners are respectively typical interdependent-independent self-construal. In self-reference task, significant others (e.g. mother) and self were represented in the same brain area, which is medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), for East Asians but not for Westerners. In oddball task and word-voice incongruity task, degree of interdependence modulates the brain response of P3 and N400 respectively. Corresponding self-construal can be accessible for bicultural subjects in culture priming. Some theories could explain the influence process, such as social brain hypothesis, culture-gene coevolutionary theory, and neuro-culture interaction model. Future researches should focus on Chinese relational self, especially on the development of native theories and methods.

Key words: collectivism, individualism, interdependent self-construal, independent self-construal, MPFC, relational self