Although Richard Nisbett has written about long-term differences in cognitive style between East and West, he is, I think, dismissive of the possibility that biology might explain such differences, or any other mental differences – at least publicly. He had a piece in the New York Times titled “All Brains Are the Same Color”, for example.

But as it turns out, the three-dimensional geometry of the cortical surface is highly predictive of individuals’ genetic ancestry – there are regional differences in the folding and gyrification, as well as volume and cortical area. I already knew that the Chinese had decided to develop their own brain anatomical atlas, due to average differences between European and Chinese brains, but this article takes it farther.