Visual Space as Physical Geometry

Abstract

The geometrical incongruence between patterns in visual space and structures and patterns of activity in the visual cortex, long known to investigators, serves as a criterion for evaluating physical theories of visual space. The problem of determining the geometry of the visual world (visual geometry) is compared with that of determining the geometry of the physical world (physical geometry). Theories as to the possible physical locus of visual space, whether in the brain or elsewhere, are reviewed, analyzed, and criticized accordingly. It is concluded that on the basis of congruence alone it would be predicted that visual space is not to be found in the brain, even though it is seemingly linked to it causally, as experimental neurology and neurophysiology demonstrate. Alternative theories as to the nature of visual space are considered, but are also found to be inadequate in explaining visual space in terms acceptable to contemporary science.

Field processes in stereovision

“…Coxeter, 1961, for the geometry; Rosar, 1985, discusses the neurophysiology in extensia). Nonetheless, we cannot yet state in what these differences consist, nor how they are actually related to the well-identified modular structure in the cortex, nor even that they are there also horizontal --only that local retinal contrast differences (lumi-nance and sometimes chromatic) in or about corresponding retinal regions are topologically mapped into interacting cortical loci.…”

The Perspective Structure of Visual Space

“…In the 18th century, Reid proposed that visual space was spherical on the basis of the shape of the eyes (Suppes, 1977). Luneburg (1947) was the first who attempted to establish the geometry of visual space by combining psychophysical data with mathematical analysis (Rosar, 1985). Although both Hillebrand (1902) and Blumenfeld (1913) performed so-called alley experiments, the geometry proposed by Luneburg was based mainly on data of Blumenfeld.…”