Jas. Kelso et al., SPONTANEOUS RECRUITMENT AND ANNIHILATION OF DEGREES OF FREEDOM IN BIOLOGICAL COORDINATION, Physics letters. A, 179(4-5), 1993, pp. 364-371
Whereas bifurcations within an already active set of components are we
ll-known in biological coordination (e.g. pit transitions), less well
understood is the process by which previously quiescent degrees of fre
edom are spontaneously activated. We introduce a simple paradigm to ex
plore how complex, biological systems flexibly recruit and annihilate
degrees of freedom according to parametric task requirements. A sequen
ce of transitions within and across planes of motion is observed as a
control parameter is varied. Such transitions are invariably preceded
by enhancement of fluctuations in trajectory related variables. Our re
sults suggest a theoretical model in which the main qualitative change
s observed experimentally are a consequence of two consecutive Hopf bi
furcations.