Decision-making through irruption theory: how to use and interpret the Haken-Kelso-Bunz model

Abstract Irruption Theory (IT) offers a novel approach to understanding mind-brain interaction in decision-making. IT suggests that the mind’s influence on brain dynamics can manifest as “irruption” — the emergence of noise or physical fluctuations that alter brain activity. Lately, Irruption-Absorption Theory (IAT) has also incorporated the idea of “absorption,” which refers to the mental stabilization or fixation of chosen content. A crucial tool for exploring the implications of this theory could be the Haken-Kelso-Bunz (HKB) model, which can simulate phase transitions in the brain, such as shifts from randomness to different kinds of stability, through simple parameter adjustments. In this paper, we demonstrate how the HKB model can incorporate IAT’s irruption and absorption after some conceptual refinement, dubbed IAT*, and help to understand the results of recent experiments that require decision-making. In doing so, we aim to present mental influence in decision-making tasks as that which enables phase transitions responsible for perception and choice. Our interpretation is that the mind’s selective focus may guide brain dynamics, aligning with physical causality without disrupting it.