An Experimental Note on Defining Frequency Competition in Intersegmental Coordination Dynamics

ABSTRACT

Synchronous coordination between two body segments departs from phase locking at 0 or π radians when the segments are asymmetrical. In models of coordination dynamics, this detuning is typically quantified by Δω = (ω₁ – ω₂), where ω₁ and ω₂ are the uncoupled frequencies of the two segments. An experiment is reported in which the magnitude of Δω ≠ 0 was satisfied by different ratios Ω of ω₁ and ω₂. The degree of detuning was found to vary systematically with Ω and Δω This result corroborates previous research using the complementary manipulation of varying Δω for a fixed Ω. A challenge for future dynamical modeling is identifying precisely how the detuning quantity incorporates both the absolute and relative differences in the uncoupled segmental frequencies.

Key words:

• coordination
• detuning
• dynamics