Comparing characteristics of linear and nonlinear oscillators, consider the following simple

systems: x + 2 x =0 and x +(2 + x) x=0 , where is radian frequency and

controls the amount of nonlinearity introduced. Numerical simulation produces the following:

Figure 1
from which spectra may be extracted (by DFT).

Figure 2
It herein becomes apparent that, whereas the linear case has a single resonant peak at the value of
, the nonlinear case has additional resonances at integer multiples of its fundamental ( 2 ,
3 , and even 4 are visible). In this case, has been assigned an arbitrarily small
value of 0.2 in order to reinforce the notion that the contribution of the additional quadratic term (
x 2 ) is small. In actual fact, that contribution is relatively large so long as remains small.
Now consider the following, with =2 :

Figure 3
It is here apparent that the effect has diminished somewhat, as is illustrated in the spectrum
obtained:

Figure 4
Nonetheless, the effect remains visible, and given sufficient numerical resolution, will continue to
feature at even higher frequencies. Clearly, the effect size depends on the relationship between
and . However, the introduction of greater nonlinearity can also result in frequency shift
of the fundamental. Consider the same again, this time with =4.5 :

Figure 5
which produces the following spectrum:

Figure 6
Thus the series of harmonics has returned, though the fundamental has been shifted downward
relative to the linear case. The particular systems demonstrated are simplest cases, selected so as
to demonstrate the fundamental notion that nonlinearity may plausibly account for apparently
harmonic phenomena. The smallness of the effect at higher frequencies does not immediately
detract from that argument, since any amount (greater than zero) of persistent resonance between
harmonically related oscillators in a GFNN will, by the principle of Hebbian learning1, result in
progressively higher connection weightings between the neurons involved.
1

Neurons that fire together, wire together