Yosef Ashkenazy

Magnitude and Sign Correlations in Heartbeat Fluctuations

We propose an approach for analyzing signals with long-range correlations by decomposing the signal increment series into magnitude and sign series and analyzing their scaling properties. We show that signals with identical long-range correlations can exhibit different time organization for the magnitude and sign. We find that the magnitude series relates to the nonlinear properties of the original time series, while the sign series relates to the linear properties. We apply our approach to the heartbeat interval series and find that the magnitude series is long-range correlated, while the sign series is anticorrelated and that both magnitude and sign series may have clinical applications.

Multifractal properties of price fluctuations of stocks and commodities

We analyze daily prices of 29 commodities and 2449 stocks, each over a period of

Characterization of sleep stages by correlations in the magnitude and sign of heartbeat increments

\approx 15

Multifractal chaotic attractors in a system of delay-differential equations modeling road traffic

years. We find that the price fluctuations for commodities have a significantly broader multifractal spectrum than for stocks. We also propose that multifractal properties of both stocks and commodities can be attributed mainly to the broad probability distribution of price fluctuations and secondarily to their temporal organization. Furthermore, we propose that, for commodities, stronger higher order correlations in price fluctuations result in broader multifractal spectra.

Magnitude and sign scaling in power-law correlated time series

We study correlation properties of the magnitude and the sign of the increments in the time intervals between successive heartbeats during light sleep, deep sleep, and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep using the detrended fluctuation analysis method. We find short-range anticorrelations in the sign time series, which are strong during deep sleep, weaker during light sleep, and even weaker during REM sleep. In contrast, we find long-range positive correlations in the magnitude time series, which are strong during REM sleep and weaker during light sleep. We observe uncorrelated behavior for the magnitude during deep sleep. Since the magnitude series relates to the nonlinear properties of the original time series, while the sign series relates to the linear properties, our findings suggest that the nonlinear properties of the heartbeat dynamics are more pronounced during REM sleep. Thus, the sign and the magnitude series provide information which is useful in distinguishing between the sleep stages.

A Stochastic Model of Human Gait Dynamics

We study a system of delay-differential equations modeling single-lane road traffic. The cars move in a closed circuit and the systems variables are each cars velocity and the distance to the car ahead. For low and high values of traffic density the system has a stable equilibrium solution, corresponding to the uniform flow. Gradually decreasing the density from high to intermediate values we observe a sequence of supercritical Hopf bifurcations forming multistable limit cycles, corresponding to flow regimes with periodically moving traffic jams. Using an asymptotic technique we find approximately small limit cycles born at Hopf bifurcations and numerically preform their global continuations with decreasing density. For sufficiently large delay the system passes to chaos following the Ruelle-Takens-Newhouse scenario (limit cycles-two-tori-three-tori-chaotic attractors). We find that chaotic and nonchaotic attractors coexist for the same parameter values and that chaotic attractors have a broad multifractal spectrum. (c) 2002 American Institute of Physics.

Application of statistical physics to heartbeat diagnosis

A time series can be decomposed into two sub-series: a magnitude series and a sign series. Here we analyze separately the scaling properties of the magnitude series and the sign series using the increment time series of cardiac interbeat intervals as an example. We find that time series having identical distributions and long-range correlation properties can exhibit quite different temporal organizations of the magnitude and sign sub-series. From the cases we study, it follows that the long-range correlations in the magnitude series indicate nonlinear behavior. Specifically, our results suggest that the correlation exponent of the magnitude series is a monotonically increasing function of the multifractal spectrum width of the original series. On the other hand, the sign series mainly relates to linear properties of the original series. We also show that the magnitude and sign series of the heart interbeat interval series can be used for diagnosis purposes.

Correlation differences in heartbeat fluctuations during rest and exercise

We present a stochastic model of gait rhythm dynamics, based on transitions between different “neural centers”, that reproduces distinctive statistical properties of normal human walking. By tuning one model parameter, the transition (hopping) range, the model can describe alterations in gait dynamics from childhood to adulthood—including a decrease in the correlation and volatility exponents with maturation. The model also generates time series with multifractal spectra whose broadness depends only on this parameter. Moreover, we find that the volatility exponent increases monotonically as a function of the width of the multifractal spectrum, suggesting the possibility of a change in multifractality with maturation.

Noise Effects on the Complex Patterns of Abnormal Heartbeats

We present several recent studies based on statistical physics concepts that can be used as diagnostic tools for heart failure. We describe the scaling exponent characterizing the long-range correlations in heartbeat time series as well as the multifractal features recently discovered in heartbeat rhythm. It is found that both features, the long-range correlations and the multifractility, are weaker in cases of heart failure.

Discrimination of the Healthy and Sick Cardiac Autonomic Nervous System by a New Wavelet Analysis of Heartbeat Intervals

We study the heartbeat activity of healthy individuals at rest and during exercise. We focus on correlation properties of the intervals formed by successive peaks in the pulse wave and find significant scaling differences between rest and exercise. For exercise the interval series is anticorrelated at short-time scales and correlated at intermediate-time scales, while for rest we observe the opposite crossover pattern--from strong correlations in the short-time regime to weaker correlations at larger scales. We also suggest a physiologically motivated stochastic scenario to provide an intuitive explanation of the scaling differences between rest and exercise.