To the activation of these three modalities of the nervous system there correspond, therefore, three completely different psychological states which, if they last for any length of time, tend in their turn to structure very different personalities and peculiar attitudes. The horizontal dimension more readily evokes conditions of “the visceral” and belonging, just as the vertical stimulates the cortical nervous system, or rational thought and differentiation, and the longitudinal dimension the muscular system and action.
It could be interesting at this point to ask ourselves if certain spatial forms are not thus different precisely because they derive from different modes of being which in turn are able to evoke different states of awareness in those who stop or live there.
Bologna and Turin, for example, are two cities characterised by different prevalent lines, the former round and horizontal, the latter square and vertical. Are they so different because those who built them were so different? And when we walk around two such different cities, are we truly the same as before, or do we ourselves change at the neurological, physical and psychological levels?