Parametric phase diffusion analysis of irregular oscillations

Parametric phase diffusion analysis (Phi DA), a method to determine variability of irregular oscillations, is presented. Phi DA is formulated as an analysis technique for sequences of Poincare return times found in numerous applications. The method is unbiased by the arbitrary choice of Poincare section, i.e. isophase, which causes a spurious component in the Poincare return times. Other return-time variability measures can be biased drastically by these spurious return times, as shown for the Fano factor of chaotic oscillations in the Rossler system. The empirical use of Phi DA is demonstrated in an application to heart rate data from the Fantasia Database, for which Phi DA parameters successfully classify heart rate variability into groups of age and gender. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2014