Unraveling the fluctuations of animal motor activity

Human and animal behavior exhibits power law correlations whose origin is controversial. In this work, the spontaneous motion of laboratory rodents was recorded during several days. It is found that animal motion is scale-free and that the scaling is introduced by the inactivity pauses both by its length as well as by its specific ordering. Furthermore, the scaling is also demonstrable in the rates of event's occurrence. A comparison with related results in humans is made and candidate models are discussed to provide clues for the origin of such dynamics.