Figure 2.

Epigenetics through the Minkowskian cone. Epigenetic changes and related environmental factors visualized in 4D Minkowskian space, assuming conception as our arbitrarily chosen observation point, the zero of the system. Across indirect epigenetics (AIE) includes all those adaptations in parental life that precede conception; within indirect epigenetics (WIE) describes all those changes that take place during the gestational period and, finally, direct epigenetics (DE) describes all those plastic processes that can occur after birth. Although these processes are strongly interconnected and can overlap on multiple levels in a complex real system, here they are treated as discrete and sequential, for the sake of clarity.