Characterizing unidirectional couplings between point processes and flows

¹ Department of Information and Communication Technologies, Universitat Pompeu Fabra - Barcelona, Spain, EU
² Institute for Complex Systems, CNR - Sesto Fiorentino, Italy, EU

^a ralphandrzejak@yahoo.de

Received: 8 August 2011
Accepted: 18 October 2011

Abstract

Experimental data comprising both time-continuous flows and point processes are recorded in many scientific disciplines. The characterization of causal interactions from such signals is key to an advanced understanding of the underlying dynamics. We therefore introduce a unified approach to characterize unidirectional couplings between point processes, between flows, as well as between point processes and flows. For this purpose we show and exploit the generality of the asymmetric state similarity conditioning principle. We use Hindmarsh-Rose neuron models and Lorenz oscillators to illustrate the high sensitivity and specificity of our approach.