Epilepsy and multidimensional time: a phenomenological and neurocognitive perspective inspired by theoretical physics

Abstract

Recent advances in theoretical physics suggest that time may exhibit a richer, potentially multidimensional structure, challenging classical linear conceptions. This Perspective develops a conceptual framework for understanding altered temporal experience in epilepsy, where seizures-driven by hypersynchronous neuronal activity and disrupted network synchronization-produce both clinical manifestations and striking distortions of subjective time, including déjà vu, jamais vu, temporal acceleration or slowing, looping, and fragmentation. Building on hierarchical models of intrinsic neural timescales, the brain is conceptualized as a dynamic temporal integrator in which distributed cortical regions operate over partially distinct temporal windows to construct coherent experience. Complementary accounts propose that subjective time emerges from the interaction of nested brain-body rhythms spanning multiple frequency bands, providing convergent temporal reference frames for perception and memory. Within this framework, Kletetschka's multidimensional time model is employed strictly as a conceptual analogy to illustrate how partially independent temporal processes may transiently decouple under pathological conditions, without implying a literal neurobiological mapping onto physical time dimensions. Seizure states may therefore be understood as disruptions of temporal integration, revealing alternative modes of temporal organization. Phenomenological analysis further clarifies these dynamics: Husserlian structures of retentio, protentio, and presentatio highlight how epileptic activity can fragment the synthesis of temporal consciousness. Taken together, seizures function as natural experiments in temporal disruption, exposing the plasticity and multi-scale organization of temporal experience. This interdisciplinary synthesis integrates neuroscience, brain-body dynamics, phenomenology, and theoretical physics-inspired analogy to propose that subjective time emerges from coordinated but partially independent temporal processes.