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Human Balancing Tasks: Power Laws, Intermittency, and Lévy Flights

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Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience

Synonyms

Balance control dynamics; Characterization of motor learning in continuous tracking tasks; Human stick balancing; Lévy flights to improve balance control; Skill acquisition in stick balancing; Virtual stick balancing

Definition

In human stick balance intermittency is observed (Fig. 1). Here intermittency denotes the random alternation between phases with extremely low movement amplitudes and phases with high movement amplitudes. This type of intermittency is characterized by power laws in the distributions of corrective movements in real stick balancing and in virtual stick balancing (i.e., balancing an unstable target on a computer screen). These observations are commonly seen as evidence which contrasts neurological control from standard engineered controllers.

Fig. 1
figure 1

A stick balanced at the fingertip

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Correspondence to Juan Luis Cabrera .

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Cabrera, J.L., Patzelt, F. (2018). Human Balancing Tasks: Power Laws, Intermittency, and Lévy Flights. In: Jaeger, D., Jung, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_502-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_502-6

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Human Balancing Tasks: Power Laws, Intermittency, and Lévy Flights
    Published:
    30 August 2018

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_502-6

  2. Original

    Human Balancing Tasks: Power Laws, Intermittency, and Lévy Flights
    Published:
    02 July 2014

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_502-5