Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews
December 1, 2022
Steven Kotler, Michael Mannino, Scott Kelso et al.
44 citations
Flow is a cognitive state of complete attentional absorption during a task, marked by intense concentration, a sense of control, feedback, and a balance between challenge and skill. It involves loss of self-consciousness, integration of action and awareness, and altered time perception. This review examines neurophysiological correlates and neuromodulatory processes of flow, focusing on large-scale brain networks and dopaminergic, noradrenergic, and endocannabinoid systems. The authors outline an evidence-based hypothetical scenario and place flow in a broader context with other altered states like psychedelic experiences and traumatic stress. They present a theoretical framework to inspire future testable hypotheses.
Communications biology
August 13, 2025
Steven Kotler, Michael Mannino, Karl Friston et al.
2 citations
Intuition, often inconsistently defined, is reframed as an evolutionarily grounded pathfinding mechanism that emerges from the brain's optimization of its relationship with the environment. A review of empirical findings identifies relevant brain networks and links intuition to cognitive states like insight. Unsolved problems dynamically alter attractor landscapes, guiding future intuitions. The concept of 'opportunistic assimilation' is explored through nonlinear neurodynamics, and hippocampal sharp wave ripples are identified as potential neural correlates of intuition, given their role in creativity, choice, action planning, and abstract thinking. Two complementary frameworks—the free energy principle and metastable coordination dynamics—together provide a comprehensive neurodynamical account of intuition's neurophenomenology.
NeuroImage
June 10, 2026
Fran Hancock, Rachael Kee, Fernando Rosas et al.
Flow—a state of effortless immersion often experienced during video games—shows a moderate inverse relationship with global brain entropy, meaning the brain is less disordered during flow than during boredom or frustration. Synchronization and metastability do not explain flow. Boredom and frustration each display distinct patterns of brain dynamics. These findings integrate earlier observations about prefrontal activity and network synchrony into a single dynamical-systems framework, identifying complexity-based markers that could help map the neural basis of media-related benefits.
bioRxiv Preprint Server
July 11, 2025
Fran Hancock, Rachael Kee, Fernando Rosas et al.
preprint
Flow—the experience of effortless immersion—shows an inverse relationship with global brain entropy during a video game task, meaning less disorderly brain activity corresponds with more flow. Boredom and frustration each display distinct patterns of brain dynamics. These findings bring together earlier observations about prefrontal activity and network synchrony into a single framework and suggest complexity-based measures could help map the neural basis of media-related benefits.
Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews
April 1, 2024
Niklas Reich, Michael Mannino, Steven Kotler
Caffeine, a non-selective adenosine receptor antagonist, may facilitate the flow state—an intrinsically rewarding condition of total task absorption and optimal performance—through several biological mechanisms. These include upregulating dopamine D1/D2 receptor affinity in reward-related brain areas, protecting dopaminergic neurons, increasing norepinephrine release and alertness, heightening parasympathetic high frequency heart rate variability, modifying striatal endocannabinoid-CB1 receptor signaling, and shifting brain network activity toward executive function. The review also discusses caffeine's application for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and notes caveats, aiming to inspire future studies on caffeine-induced flow.