First published online August 18, 2005
Journal of Experimental Biology 208, 3221-3232 (2005)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2005
doi: 10.1242/jeb.01762
Assessing physiological complexity
W. W. Burggren1,* and
M. G. Monticino2
1 Department of Biological Sciences
2 Department of Mathematics, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76203,
USA

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Fig. 1. Time series trajectories. (A) System behavior converges to a fixed state.
Such a pattern is commonly seen in the assessment of phase lag and damping in
blood pressure recording systems. (B) Periodic system. Such patterns are
evident in stable heart rate recordings. (C) Aperiodic trajectory
characteristic of a chaotic system. Patterns like these are characteristic of
the abnormal beating of hearts in fibrillation.
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Fig. 2. Effect of sampling frequency on apparent complexity of heart rate
(fH) patterning in the adult moth of the tobacco hornworm,
Manduca sexta. (A) Heart rate in the resting, intact adult moth at
20°C. Time marker in 10 s intervals (after
Smits et al., 2000 ).
(BE) Effect of sampling frequency on the apparent heart rate pattern
observed during a 1.5 min period. Note how in B and C the same low sample
frequency can yield a heart rate of zero or alternatively a range from 20 to
70 beats min1. As sampling frequency increases, the apparent
complexity of the observed pattern of heart rate increases. Note that the
potential and kinetic complexity remain identical in each case the
change is merely an artifact of sampling frequency.
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Fig. 3. Changes in predictability and uncertainty as a function of sampling
frequency in simple, complicated and complex systems. (A) When sampling times
are frequent, the degree of predictability is high (uncertainty low) as time
progresses from the last sampling. Note also that the rate of degradation is
largest in complex systems and smallest in simple systems. (B). Predictability
is degraded (uncertainty increases) rapidly at lower sampling frequencies.
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© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2005