A Temporal Hierarchy of Synchronies: Content Formation, Self-Binding, Stabilization, and Dynamic Switching

The synchrony hierarchy theory divides neural synchrony into four temporal and functional levels. Synchrony hierarchy denotes a process architecture in which different coordination regimes support different operations of self-related processing. Fast content-forming synchrony refers to millisecond-scale temporal integration and segregation during content formation. Directed self-binding synchrony refers to event-level binding of already formed content to the self-anchor. Slow self-anchor stabilization refers to maintenance of self-reference continuity across seconds to minutes. Pathological dynamic isolation refers to a state-dependent posteromedial or retrosplenial rhythm in the one-to-three-hertz range in which the self-anchor loses integrative coupling with bodily, content, and memory systems. This framework concerns the process coordination of self-related processing. Its main prediction is a partial dissociation among four deficit profiles: content fragmentation, impaired self-binding, unstable self-anchor continuity, and dissociative disconnection. The model is supported if these profiles show distinct behavioral and neurophysiological signatures and provide predictive gain over single-factor synchrony, connectivity, or arousal accounts.