Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 158702 (2002) [4 pages]On-Off Intermittency in a Human Balancing TaskReceived 5 June 2001; revised 28 May 2002; published 20 September 2002 Motion analysis in three dimensions demonstrate that the fluctuations in the vertical displacement angle of a stick balanced at the fingertip obey a scaling law characteristic of on-off intermittency and that >98% of the corrective movements occur fast compared to the measured time delay. These experimental observations are reproduced by a model for an inverted pendulum with time-delayed feedback in which parametric noise forces a control parameter across a particular stability boundary. Our observations suggest that parametric noise is an essential, but up until now underemphasized, component of the neural control of balance. © 2002 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.158702
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.158702
PACS:
89.75.Da, 02.30.Ks, 02.50.–r, 05.45.–a
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