Evidence map›Paper›PMID 35599558›Full record

ReviewPhilosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences2022

Greater than the parts: a review of the information decomposition approach to causal emergence.

Pedro A M Mediano, Fernando E Rosas, Andrea I Luppi, Henrik J Jensen, Anil K Seth, Adam B Barrett, Robin L Carhart-Harris, Daniel Bor

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
31citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

31 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Toward a unified taxonomy of information dynamics via Integrated Information Decomposition.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  7. Article
  8. Review
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Synergy as the Failure of Distributivity.Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024
    Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Embodied Neural Systems Can Enable Iterative Investigations of Morally Relevant States.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024
    Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. How to be an integrated information theorist without losing your body.Frontiers in computational neuroscience · 2024
    Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

Pedro A M MedianoDepartment of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Fernando E RosasCentre for Psychedelic Research, Imperial College London, London, UK.ORCID 0000-0001-7790-6183
Andrea I LuppiUniversity Division of Anaesthesia, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-3461-6431
Henrik J JensenCentre for Complexity Science, Imperial College London, London, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-5398-3288
Anil K SethSackler Centre for Consciousness Science, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-1421-6051
Adam B BarrettSackler Centre for Consciousness Science, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.
Robin L Carhart-HarrisCentre for Psychedelic Research, Imperial College London, London, UK.
Daniel BorDepartment of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

Funding

Wellcome Trust 210920/Z/18/Z
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Emergence is a profound subject that straddles many scientific disciplines, including the formation of galaxies and how consciousness arises from the collective activity of neurons. Despite the broad interest that exists on this concept, the study of emergence has suffered from a lack of formalisms that could be used to guide discussions and advance theories. Here, we summarize, elaborate on, and extend a recent formal theory of causal emergence based on information decomposition, which is quantifiable and amenable to empirical testing. This theory relates emergence with information about a system's temporal evolution that cannot be obtained from the parts of the system separately. This article provides an accessible but rigorous introduction to the framework, discussing the merits of the approach in various scenarios of interest. We also discuss several interpretation issues and potential misunderstandings, while highlighting the distinctive benefits of this formalism. This article is part of the theme issue 'Emergent phenomena in complex physical and socio-technical systems: from cells to societies'.

Indexed as

ConsciousnessModels, TheoreticalNeuronsCausalityemergenceinformation decompositionsynergy

Identifiers

PMID35599558
PMCPMC9125226

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.