Eur. Phys. J. B 67, 251-257 (2009)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2009-00022-x

A data-analysis method for decomposing synchronization variability of anticipatory systems into stochastic and deterministic components

¹ Center for the Ecological Study of Perception and Action, University of Connecticut, 406 Babbidge Road, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA
² Haskins Laboratories, 300 George St, New Haven, CT, USA

Corresponding author: ^a nigel.stepp@uconn.edu

Received: 20 October 2008
Published online: 22 January 2009

Abstract

Synchronization has been shown to be a valuable concept in the field of nonlinear dynamics and dynamical systems in general. Deviation from perfect synchronization results from an interplay of deterministic coupling forces and stochastic fluctuating forces. When the exact details of these two sources of variance are unknown, it becomes useful to estimate them directly from data. To this end, we develop a data analysis method for estimating parameters associated with these deterministic and stochastic components. The method relies on separating their respective contributions to synchronization error. We focus on the case where a slave system synchronizes with the future of a master system, so-called anticipating synchronization.