title: Geometry of imaginary spaces.
abstract: "Imaginary space" is a three-dimensional visual awareness that feels different from what you experience when you open your eyes in broad daylight. Imaginary spaces are experienced when you look "into" (as distinct from "at") a picture for instance. Empirical research suggests that imaginary spaces have a tight, coherent structure, that is very different from that of three-dimensional Euclidean space. This has to be due to some constraints on psychogenesis, that is the development of awareness. I focus on the topic of how, and where, the construction of such geometrical structures, that figure prominently in one's awareness, is implemented in the brain. My overall conclusion-with notable exceptions-is that present day science has no clue. I indicate some possibly rewarding directions of research.
authors.affiliation: Delft University of Technology, Man Machine Interaction Group, EEMCS, P.O. Box 5031, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands. j.j.koenderink@tudelft.nl
authors.forename: Jan J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Koenderink
mesh_terms: D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination / Q000502:physiology*; D008433:Mathematics; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012106:Research / Q000639:trends; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology*