Can the brain take a 2D image (eg: a picture) and convert it to a 3D image?
Yes! Our visual system (of which the brain is a key part) is capable of fairly accurately computing 3D geometry from 2D images. There are times it will be tricked, or there won’t be enough information available in the 2D image, but generally (especially if there is motion, or multiple views) we can do quite well. Often what are called visual illusions are stimuli designed to trick our visual systems into making an “incorrect” interpretation. There is much research on topics like “shape from shading”, “shape from motion”, etc. that describe how we use the clues available in an image to compute 3D geometry.
