When Being Different Becomes an Asset or a Burden: The Interaction Effect between Cultural Estrangement and Self-Esteem on Default Mode Network Activity

Increasing multiculturalism and globalization have increased the discrepancies between sociallyshared norms and personal values. This study investigated whether Cultural Estrangement (CE) and self-esteem (SE) interact to influence functional connectivity (FC) in the default mode network (DMN). In total, 170 healthy Japanese adults (18–70 years) were recruited, 70 of whom completed the CE Inventory (CEI) and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) and underwent 7Tesla restingstate functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). DMN seeds were extracted from resting samples (n = 100) using group-level independent component analysis with 20, 25, and 30 components, followed by CEI × RSES interaction on resting-state FC (rsFC). Across all three DMN masks, a single cluster in the right temporoparietal junction (TPJ) showed a significant interaction after cluster-level false discovery rate correction (p < 0.05). Multiple regression analysis revealed that when the RSES was high, CEI correlated positively with DMN–TPJ rsFC, whereas at low RSES, the correlation was negative; age, sex, CEI, and RSES alone were not significant. These findings suggest that high SE facilitates the incorporation of CE-related autobiographical information into self-representation, whereas low SE is associated with reduced incorporation. DMN–TPJ coupling may indicate whether certain functions are viewed as assets or burdens in multicultural societies.