A complexity-science framework for studying flow: using media to probe brain-phenomenology dynamics.
Fran Hancock, Rachael Kee, Fernando E. Rosas, Manesh Girn, Steven Kotler, Michael Mannino, Richard Huskey
Neuroimage June 10, 2026 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2026.122050 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experimental study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Healthy participants |
| Intervention | difficulty-titrated video game |
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Complexity science Flow Metastability Neurophenomenology Synchronization FMRI |
| Key findings | Flow shows an inverse relationship to global entropy with moderate explanatory power, and is not explained by synchronization or metastability, whereas boredom and frustration exhibit different configurations of brain-dynamics metrics. |
Abstract
Consciousness spans a range of phenomenological experiences, from effortless immersion to disengaged monotony, yet how such phenomenology emerges from brain activity is not well understood. Flow, a phenomenological experience frequently elicited by interactive media, has drawn attention for its links to performance and wellbeing, but existing neural accounts rely on single-region or small-network analyses that overlook the brain's distributed and dynamic nature. Complexity science offers tools that capture brain-wide dynamics, but this approach has rarely been applied to flow or to its natural comparisons: boredom and frustration. Consequently, it remains unclear whether tools drawn from complexity science can objectively discriminate between these phenomenological experiences while also clarifying their neural basis. To address this uncertainty, we induced each phenomenological experience with a difficulty-titrated video game during functional magnetic resonance imaging and collected concurrent behavioral and self-report data. Our complex systems analyses revealed that flow, in this experimental setup, shows an inverse relationship to global entropy with moderate explanatory power, and is not explained by either synchronization or metastability, whereas boredom and frustration exhibit different configurations of brain-dynamics metrics. Notably, these findings integrate previously separate prefrontal and network-synchrony observations within a single dynamical systems framework and identify complexity-based markers with the potential to map the neural underpinnings of media-related benefits.
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on philosophy of mind, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Deep-Dream Virtual Reality Platform for Studying Altered Perceptual Phenomenology | 2017 | Experimental study | |
| New World Tryptamine Hallucinogens and the Neuroscience of Ayahuasca. | 2018 | Review with original neuroimaging and neurophysiological data | |
| Differential contributions of serotonergic and dopaminergic functional connectivity to the phenomenology of LSD Healthy adults | 2022 | Secondary analysis of experimental data | n = 15 |
| TMS-EEG and resting-state EEG applied to altered states of consciousness: oscillations, complexity, and phenomenology. | 2023 | Experimental study | |
| Training novice practitioners to reliably report their meditation experience using shared phenomenological dimensions. Novice meditation practitioners | 2019 | Neurophenomenological experiment |
Citations in the library
Cites 20
- Mind the Hype: A Critical Evaluation and Prescriptive Agenda for Research on Mindfulness and Meditation Perspectives on Psychological Science October 10, 2017
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- REBUS and the Anarchic Brain: Toward a Unified Model of the Brain Action of Psychedelics Pharmacological Reviews June 20, 2019
- Increased spontaneous MEG signal diversity for psychoactive doses of ketamine, LSD and psilocybin Scientific Reports April 19, 2017
- Neural correlates of the DMT experience assessed with multivariate EEG. Scientific Reports November 19, 2019
and 15 more in the library