Nicholas P. Timms
Submitted: May 2026 : Published: 18th May 2026
Abstract
The classical conceptualization of human decision-making as a continuous, isolated cortical process has generated a profound epistemological crisis in systems neuroscience, a limitation most starkly highlighted by the failure to account for embodied Gut-Brain Axis interactions. To resolve this restrictive paradigm, this paper introduces the framework of “Cognitive Spacetime,” synthesizing high-resolution magnetoencephalography (MEG) data of covert attentional sampling, gastric electrophysiology, and the theoretical physics of analogue gravity. We propose that decision-making is not a linear evidence accumulation, but rather a complex orbital mechanic that actively navigates the metric tensor of a viscera-generated internal spacetime. MEG evidence demonstrates that the human brain samples multiple decision alternatives rhythmically at 11 Hz, identically tracking the periapsis and apoapsis of orbital attention; however, breaking this orbit requires high-frequency 22 Hz neural bursts to provide the kinetic “escape velocity” necessary to shift focus between competing cognitive masses. We further establish that this underlying computational geometry is orchestrated by the 0.05 Hz infra-slow gastric basal rhythm via phase-amplitude coupling. By utilizing the stomach wall as an effective acoustic metric, variations in visceral wave speed dictate global alpha-band amplitude, lowering or raising the gravitational threshold for attentional transfers. Ultimately, this framework redefines severe gastrointestinal motility disorders as the formation of visceral “analogue event horizons,” positioning cognitive trapping, rumination, and decision paralysis as the fundamental, topological consequence of a collapsed cognitive metric.
