Signals of complexity and fragmentation in accelerometer data.

There is a growing interest to analyze physiological data from a complex systems perspective. Accelerometer data is one type of data that is easy to obtain but often difficult to analyze for insights beyond basic levels of description. Previous work hypothesizes that an individual's activity pa...

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Main Authors: Els Weinans, Jerrald L Rector, Sarah Charman, Renae J Stefanetti, Cecilia Jimenez-Moreno, Gráinne S Gorman, Ingrid van de Leemput, Daniël van As, René Melis, Baziel van Engelen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2025-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0326522
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author Els Weinans
Jerrald L Rector
Sarah Charman
Renae J Stefanetti
Cecilia Jimenez-Moreno
Gráinne S Gorman
Ingrid van de Leemput
Daniël van As
René Melis
Baziel van Engelen
author_facet Els Weinans
Jerrald L Rector
Sarah Charman
Renae J Stefanetti
Cecilia Jimenez-Moreno
Gráinne S Gorman
Ingrid van de Leemput
Daniël van As
René Melis
Baziel van Engelen
author_sort Els Weinans
collection DOAJ
description There is a growing interest to analyze physiological data from a complex systems perspective. Accelerometer data is one type of data that is easy to obtain but often difficult to analyze for insights beyond basic levels of description. Previous work hypothesizes that an individual's activity pattern can be seen as a complex dynamical system. Here, we explore this hypothesis further by investigating whether complexity-based measures quantifying repetitiveness and fragmentation of activity captured via accelerometer can detect health differences beyond traditional measures. Our results demonstrate that healthy individuals have a higher regularity (indicated by a lower correlation dimension), a higher probability of activity after a period of rest, and a lower probability of a period of rest after a period of activity compared with patients living with Myotonic Dystrophy type I (DM1), a chronic, progressive, complex, multisystem disease. For the correlation dimension, this difference was independent of the average, coefficient of variation and autocorrelation of the activity signals. This suggests that the correlation dimension can extract clinically relevant information from accelerometer data. Therefore, our results corroborate the idea that a complexity perspective may help to reveal the emergent characteristics of health and disease.
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spelling doaj-art-8444ff0e675e48eb82f99d96693ca8a02025-08-20T03:11:46ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032025-01-01207e032652210.1371/journal.pone.0326522Signals of complexity and fragmentation in accelerometer data.Els WeinansJerrald L RectorSarah CharmanRenae J StefanettiCecilia Jimenez-MorenoGráinne S GormanIngrid van de LeemputDaniël van AsRené MelisBaziel van EngelenThere is a growing interest to analyze physiological data from a complex systems perspective. Accelerometer data is one type of data that is easy to obtain but often difficult to analyze for insights beyond basic levels of description. Previous work hypothesizes that an individual's activity pattern can be seen as a complex dynamical system. Here, we explore this hypothesis further by investigating whether complexity-based measures quantifying repetitiveness and fragmentation of activity captured via accelerometer can detect health differences beyond traditional measures. Our results demonstrate that healthy individuals have a higher regularity (indicated by a lower correlation dimension), a higher probability of activity after a period of rest, and a lower probability of a period of rest after a period of activity compared with patients living with Myotonic Dystrophy type I (DM1), a chronic, progressive, complex, multisystem disease. For the correlation dimension, this difference was independent of the average, coefficient of variation and autocorrelation of the activity signals. This suggests that the correlation dimension can extract clinically relevant information from accelerometer data. Therefore, our results corroborate the idea that a complexity perspective may help to reveal the emergent characteristics of health and disease.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0326522
spellingShingle Els Weinans
Jerrald L Rector
Sarah Charman
Renae J Stefanetti
Cecilia Jimenez-Moreno
Gráinne S Gorman
Ingrid van de Leemput
Daniël van As
René Melis
Baziel van Engelen
Signals of complexity and fragmentation in accelerometer data.
PLoS ONE
title Signals of complexity and fragmentation in accelerometer data.
title_full Signals of complexity and fragmentation in accelerometer data.
title_fullStr Signals of complexity and fragmentation in accelerometer data.
title_full_unstemmed Signals of complexity and fragmentation in accelerometer data.
title_short Signals of complexity and fragmentation in accelerometer data.
title_sort signals of complexity and fragmentation in accelerometer data
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0326522
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