title: Contemporary theories of 1/f noise in motor control.
abstract: 1/f noise has been discovered in a number of time series collected in psychological and behavioral experiments. This ubiquitous phenomenon has been ignored for a long time and classical models were not designed for accounting for these long-range correlations. The aim of this paper is to present and discuss contrasted theoretical perspectives on 1/f noise, in order to provide a comprehensive overview of current debates in this domain. In a first part, we propose a formal definition of the phenomenon of 1/f noise, and we present some commonly used methods for measuring long-range correlations in time series. In a second part, we develop a theoretical position that considers 1/f noise as the hallmark of system complexity. From this point of view, 1/f noise emerges from the coordination of the many elements that compose the system. In a third part, we present a theoretical counterpoint suggesting that 1/f noise could emerge from localized sources within the system. In conclusion, we try to draw some lines of reasoning for going beyond the opposition between these two approaches.
authors.affiliation: Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal.
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Diniz
authors.forename: Maarten L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Wijnants
authors.forename: Kjerstin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Torre
authors.forename: João
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Barreiros
authors.forename: Nuno
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Crato
authors.forename: Anna M T
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Bosman
authors.forename: Fred
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hasselman
authors.forename: Ralf F A
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Cox
authors.forename: Guy C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Van Orden
authors.forename: Didier
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Delignières
mesh_terms: D001676:Biofeedback, Psychology / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D017709:Fractals; D006801:Humans; D008959:Models, Neurological; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011601:Psychophysics; D012153:Retention, Psychology / Q000502:physiology; D013269:Stochastic Processes