On-off intermittency in a human balancing task.
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.
D005246:Feedback / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009424:Nervous System Physiological Phenomena; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D004856:Postural Balance / Q000502:physiology*