 Interaction information measures the influence of a variable formula_10 on the amount of information shared between formula_15.Because the term formula_7 can be larger than formula_4 — for example, when both formula_5 and formula_6 have a joint effect on formula_10 but are independent of each other without knowing formula_10, the interaction information can be negative as well as positive.Positive interaction information indicates that variable formula_10 inhibits (i.e., "accounts for" or "explains" some of) the correlation between formula_15, whereas negative interaction information indicates that variable formula_10 facilitates or enhances the correlation between formula_15.