Synchronizing movements with the metronome: nonlinear error correction and unstable periodic orbits
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Published on: September 21, 2017
Ralf Engbert1, Ralf Th Krampe, Jürgen Kurths
1Department of Physics, University of Potsdam, Germany. engbert@rz.uni-potsdam.de
Abstract:
The control of human hand movements is investigated in a simple synchronization task. We propose and analyze a stochastic model based on nonlinear error correction; a mechanism which implies the existence of unstable periodic orbits. This prediction is tested in an experiment with human subjects. We find that our experimental data are in good agreement with numerical simulations of our theoretical model. These results suggest that feedback control of the human motor systems shows nonlinear behavior.
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