Unraveling the fluctuations of animal motor activity

Abstract

Human motor activities are known to exhibit scale-free long-term correlated fluctuations over a wide range of timescales, from few to thousands of seconds. The fundamental processes originating such fractal-like behavior are not yet understood. To untangle the most significant features of these fluctuations, in this work the problem is oversimplified by studying a much simpler system: the spontaneous motion of rodents, recorded during several days. The analysis of the animal motion reveals a robust scaling comparable with the results previously reported in humans. It is shown that the most relevant features of the experimental results can be replicated by the statistics of the activation-threshold model proposed in another context by Davidsen and Schuster.

References in corpus (3)

• A Poissonian explanation for heavy-tails in e-mail communication
• Impact of memory on human dynamics
• Scaling in the Inter-Event Time of Random and Seasonal Systems

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Emergent complex neural dynamics
• Entropy of dynamical social networks
• Poissonian bursts in e-mail correspondence
• Assessment of long-range correlation in animal behaviour time series: the temporal pattern of locomotor activity of Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix) and mosquito larva (Culex quinquefasciatus)
• How we move is universal: scaling in the average shape of human activity
• Hidden scaling patterns and universality in written communication
• Models, Entropy and Information of Temporal Social Networks
• The collective brain is critical
• Fractals in the Nervous System: conceptual Implications for Theoretical Neuroscience