Type: article
Abstract: Insight and coherent reasoning appear to emerge abruptly during cognitive processing, suggesting an ostiary transition between dynamical regimes rather than a gradual accumulation of computation. This paper proposes a simple information-theoretic invariant governing this transition. We define the Porter Ratio Pρ as the ratio between the rate at which a system reduces internal predictive entropy and the rate at which environmental entropy enters the system. When this ratio exceeds a critical threshold, the Porter Ratio marks the ostiary threshold at which internal predictive loops stabilize faster than external perturbations disrupt them. The system can then maintain recursive representations of its own predictive state. We hypothesize that this regime corresponds to the phenomenological experience of insight and to stable reasoning in both biological neural systems and artificial neural networks. The framework yields measurable quantities and suggests experimental tests in neuroscience and machine learning.
Author: Porter, Quinn
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7141780117