The presence of both stochastic and deterministic dynamics in electroretinograms measured under identical experimental conditions

Abstract

We have studied whether living things investigated under the same measuring conditions can generate signals with different types of dynamics. We also wanted to detect the possible effects of low-intensity microwaves using parameters of deterministic chaos. For this purpose, two sets of electroretinograms were analysed by methods aimed at recognizing different types of dynamics. Both sets included the time series recorded from objects exposed to low-intensity microwaves and those that were not exposed. The analytical methods are based on nonlinear forecasting and a "surrogate data" technique. Although the experimental conditions were identical for the two sets, we have shown that both have time series with deterministic and stochastic dynamics. We also found that the use of parameters of deterministic dynamics is insufficient to distinguish between the sets.