Multifractal analysis of the long-range correlations in the cardiac dynamics of Drosophila melanogaster

By means of the multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MFDFA) we investigate long-range correlations in the interbeat time series of heart activity of Drosophila melanogaster—the classical object of research in genetics. Our main investigation tool are the fractal spectra f(α) and h(q) by means of which we trace the correlation properties of Drosophila heartbeat dynamics for three consequent generations of species. We observe that opposite to the case of humans the time series of the heartbeat activity of healthy Drosophila do not have scaling properties. Time series from species with genetic defects can be long-range correlated. Different kinds of genetic heart defects lead to different shape of the fractal spectra. The fractal heartbeat dynamics of Drosophila is transferred from generation to generation.