western brain and its japan landscape, temples, and town houses a neurophysiologic approach

Two physicians, both grown up in west europe, educated also in this area (supplemented by many visits of the united states), travelled 20 years ago to japan for scientific reasons and they changed thereafter in their mental sight of the world. in a first part, the neurophysiologic basis of sensation from the sensory receptor up to the cerebral cortex (“bottom up”), the mechanisms of building memories and the influences of the contents of the memories on the bottom up (“top down”), thus constructing an apperception, are described. these functional elements provide a first approach to that what might be going on when western brain encounters japan. in a second part, the deduced neurophysiologic processes are illustrated by photographs (hs) and works of art (ejs). the sensory processes generate a “gestalt” which is transformed to nonverbal “extrakte kunst”.