EMI model: A scale free biophysical framework for human consciousness, cognition and behaviour.
Tommaso Firaux, Jack A Tuszynski, Marco Cavaglià
Bio Systems January 2026 DOI: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2025.105674 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Cognitive dynamics Consciousness modeling Energy–mass–information framework Entropy and evolution Holographic brain Information thermodynamics Neural synchronization |
| Key points | Proposes the Energy-Mass-Information (EMI) framework, which reconceptualizes the brain-mind system as a network of interactions among energetic oscillations, material substrates, and informational patterns. Argues that cognition arises through attractor states guided by resonance, plasticity, and self-organization, and that consciousness is a holographically organized phenomenon embedded in the brain-body system and shaped by internal and external fields. |
Abstract
Understanding consciousness, cognition, and behaviour requires an integrated framework capable of bridging neurobiology, physics, and information theory. In this paper, we propose the Energy-Mass-Information (EMI) framework as a novel paradigm to conceptualize mental phenomena as emergent properties of dynamic, field-based interactions. Rooted in, and direct expression of the Unified Holographic Framework for Neural Coherence and Consciousness (UHF), EMI introduces a transdisciplinary approach that reconceptualizes the brain-mind system as a continuously evolving network of interactions among energetic oscillations, material substrates, and informational patterns. At the heart of the EMI model lies the notion that cognition arises through the formation and modulation of attractor states-stable yet flexible configurations in the brain's energy-information landscape-guided by resonance, plasticity, and self-organizing processes. Consciousness is thus interpreted as a holographically organized phenomenon, embedded within the biophysical substrate of the brain-body system and dynamically shaped by both internal and external fields. Behaviour emerges as the macroscopic expression of shifts among informational attractors, driven by energetic gradients and encoded across multiple scales of neural and body organization. By integrating principles from quantum coherence, neural synchronization, and dynamic systems theory, EMI offers a unifying perspective that transcends reductionist models, linking subjective experience to measurable neurophysiological and field-level processes.