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Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 138103 (2007) [4 pages]

Universal Scaling Law in Human Behavioral Organization

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Toru Nakamura1, Ken Kiyono2, Kazuhiro Yoshiuchi3, Rika Nakahara4, Zbigniew R. Struzik5, and Yoshiharu Yamamoto5,*
1The Center for Advanced Medical Engineering and Informatics, Osaka University, 1–3 Machikaneyama, Toyonaka-shi, Osaka 560–8531, Japan
2College of Engineering, Nihon University, 1 Naka-gawara, Tokusada, Tamura-machi, Koriyama City, Fukushima, 963–8642, Japan
3Department of Psychosomatic Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7–3–1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113–8655, Japan
4Department of Psychiatry, Teikyo University Mizonokuchi Hospital, 3–8–3 Mizonokuchi, Takatsu-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa 213–8507, Japan
5Educational Physiology Laboratory, Graduate School of Education, The University of Tokyo, 7–3–1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113–0033, Japan

Received 29 April 2007; published 28 September 2007

We describe the nature of human behavioral organization, specifically how resting and active periods are interwoven throughout daily life. Active period durations with physical activity count successively above a predefined threshold, when rescaled with individual means, follow a universal stretched exponential (gamma-type) cumulative distribution with characteristic time, both in healthy individuals and in patients with major depressive disorder. On the other hand, resting period durations below the threshold for both groups obey a scale-free power-law cumulative distribution over two decades, with significantly lower scaling exponents in the patients. We thus find universal distribution laws governing human behavioral organization, with a parameter altered in depression.

© 2007 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.138103
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.138103
PACS:
87.19.St, 05.40.−a, 89.75.Da

*yamamoto@p.u-tokyo.ac.jp

 
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