A study led by Takahiko Masuda at the University of Alberta (Canada) has found that when Westerners look at an image they tend to isolate a central subject whereas East Asians tend toward seeing the image in its contextual entirety. For instance, when asked to look at a picture of an individual and judge his or her mood, a group of Japanese took into account the facial expressions of the background group whereas Western volunteers didn’t consider the expressions of the people in the background. Nobody to my knowledge has run this test using an fMRI scanner but it could be interesting to try it. Again, this all links back to different types of thinking and, in particular, how different individuals and cultures (and perhaps even institutions) acquire, process and retain certain kinds of knowledge.