Abstract
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 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.
- Received 5 June 2001
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.158702
©2002 American Physical Society