Abstract
Under conditions in which absolute phase and frequency synchronization are neither essential nor attainable for biological functioning, some form of relative coordination is still possible. Attraction toward certain phase and frequency relations remains, but phase slippage as well as occasional skips and jumps occur as the component units adjust spatially and temporally. We establish the connection between this less rigid form of coordination and intermittency, a generic feature of dynamical systems near tangent bifurcations. Intermittency provides a mechanism for entering and exiting mode-locked states, endowing the system with a vital mix of flexibility and coherence. In the intermittent régime close to critical points, the system possesses a ‘predictive’ or ‘anticipatory’ property. The identified dynamics are level-independent and may be essential to a number of different biological functions.
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Kelso, J.A.S., DeGuzman, G.C., Holroyd, T. (1991). Synergetic Dynamics of Biological Coordination with Special Reference to Phase Attraction and Intermittency. In: Haken, H., Koepchen, H.P. (eds) Rhythms in Physiological Systems. Springer Series in Synergetics, vol 55. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-76877-4_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-76877-4_15
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