Noise-induced transition in human reaction times. (26th September 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Medina, José M; Díaz, José A
• Is Part Of: Journal of statistical mechanics. (2016:Sep.)
• Publication Date: 2016-09-26
• Subjects: Statistical mechanics -- Periodicals; Mechanics -- Statistical methods -- Periodicals; 530.1305
• DOI: 10.1088/1742-5468/2016/09/093502
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1742-5468

Abstract

Abstract: The human reaction/response time can be defined as the time elapsed from the onset of stimulus presentation until a response occurs in many sensory and cognitive processes. A reaction time model based on Piéron's law is investigated. The model shows a noise-induced transition in the moments of reaction time distributions due to the presence of strong additive noise. The model also demonstrates that reaction times do not follow fluctuation scaling between the mean and the variance but follow a generalized version between the skewness and the kurtosis. The results indicate that noise-induced transitions in the moments govern fluctuations in sensory–motor transformations and open an insight into the macroscopic effects of noise in human perception and action. The conditions that lead to extreme reaction times are discussed based on the transfer of information in neurons.