Abstract
Recent advances in neuroscience have linked dynamical systems theory to cognition. The main contention is that extended cognition relies on a unitary brain-body-tool system showing the expected signatures of interaction-dominance reflected in a multifractal behavior. This might be particularly relevant when it comes to understanding how the brain is able to embody a tool to perform a task. Here we applied the multifractal formalism to the dynamics of hand movement while one was performing a computer task (the herding task) using a mouse or its own hand as a tool to move an object on the screen. We applied a focus-based multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis to acceleration time series. Then, multifractal nonlinearity was assessed by comparing original series to a finite set of surrogates obtained after Iterated Amplitude Adjusted Fourier transformation, a method that removes nonlinear multiscale dependencies while preserving the linear structure of the time series. Both hand and mouse task execution demonstrated multifractal nonlinearity, a typical form of across-scales interactivity in cognitive control. In addition, a wider multifractal spectrum was observed in mouse condition, which might highlight a richer set of interactions when the cognitive system is extended to the embodied mouse. We conclude that the emergence of multifractal nonlinearity from a brain-body-tool system pleads for recent theories of radical tool embodiment. Multifractal nonlinearity may be a promising metric to appreciate how physical objects—but also virtual tools and potentially prosthetics—are efficiently embodied by the brain.
Funder
Association Nationale de la Recherche et de la Technologie
Subject
Statistics and Probability,Statistical and Nonlinear Physics,Analysis
Cited by
2 articles.
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