Mechanism, dynamics, and biological existence of multistability in a large class of bursting neurons

Multistability, the coexistence of multiple attractors in a dynamical system, is explored in bursting nerve cells. A modeling study is performed to show that a large class of bursting systems, as defined by a shared topology when represented as dynamical systems, is inherently suited to support multistability. We derive the bifurcation structure and parametric trends leading to multistability in these systems. Evidence for the existence of multirhythmic behavior in neurons of the aquatic mollusc Aplysia californica that is consistent with our proposed mechanism is presented. Although these experimental results are preliminary, they indicate that single neurons may be capable of dynamically storing information for longer time scales than typically attributed to nonsynaptic mechanisms.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figure

Survivability of Deterministic Dynamical Systems

The notion of a part of phase space containing desired (or allowed) states of a dynamical system is important in a wide range of complex systems research. It has been called the safe operating space, the viability kernel or the sunny region. In this paper we define the notion of survivability: Given a random initial condition, what is the likelihood that the transient behaviour of a deterministic system does not leave a region of desirable states. We demonstrate the utility of this novel stability measure by considering models from climate science, neuronal networks and power grids. We also show that a semi-analytic lower bound for the survivability of linear systems allows a numerically very efficient survivability analysis in realistic models of power grids. Our numerical and semi-analytic work underlines that the type of stability measured by survivability is not captured by common asymptotic stability measures.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figure

Hidden attractors in fundamental problems and engineering models

Recently a concept of self-excited and hidden attractors was suggested: an attractor is called a self-excited attractor if its basin of attraction overlaps with neighborhood of an equilibrium, otherwise it is called a hidden attractor. For example, hidden attractors are attractors in systems with no equilibria or with only one stable equilibrium (a special case of multistability and coexistence of attractors). While coexisting self-excited attractors can be found using the standard computational procedure, there is no standard way of predicting the existence or coexistence of hidden attractors in a system. In this plenary survey lecture the concept of self-excited and hidden attractors is discussed, and various corresponding examples of self-excited and hidden attractors are considered

Lag Synchronization in Coupled Multistable van der Pol-Duffing Oscillators

We consider the system of externally excited identical van der Pol-Duffing oscillators unidirectionally coupled in a ring. When the coupling is introduced, each of the oscillator’s trajectories is on different attractor. We study the changes in the dynamics due to the increase in the coupling coefficient. Studying the phase of the oscillators, we calculate the parameter value for which we obtain the antiphase lag synchronization of the system and also the bifurcation values for which we observe qualitative changes in the dynamics of already synchronized system. We give evidence that lag synchronization is typical for coupled multistable systems

Basin stability approach for quantifying responses of multistable systems with parameters mismatch

Acknowledgement This work is funded by the National Science Center Poland based on the decision number DEC-2015/16/T/ST8/00516. PB is supported by the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Experimental evidence for vibrational resonance and enhanced signal transmission in Chua's circuit

We consider a single Chua's circuit and a system of a unidirectionally coupled n-Chua's circuits driven by a biharmonic signal with two widely different frequencies \omega and \Omega, where \Omega >> \omega. We show experimental evidence for vibrational resonance in the single Chua's circuit and undamped signal propagation of a low-frequency signal in the system of n-coupled Chua's circuits where only the first circuit is driven by the biharmonic signal. In the single circuit, we illustrate the mechanism of vibrational resonance and the influence of the biharmonic signal parameters on the resonance. In the n(= 75)-coupled Chua's circuits enhanced propagation of low-frequency signal is found to occur for a wide range of values of the amplitude of the high-frequency input signal and coupling parameter. The response amplitude of the ith circuit increases with i and attains a saturation. Moreover, the unidirectional coupling is found to act as a low-pass filter.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures, Accepted for Publication in International Journal of Bifurcation and Chao

A simple method for detecting chaos in nature

Chaos, or exponential sensitivity to small perturbations, appears everywhere in nature. Moreover, chaos is predicted to play diverse functional roles in living systems. A method for detecting chaos from empirical measurements should therefore be a key component of the biologist's toolkit. But, classic chaos-detection tools are highly sensitive to measurement noise and break down for common edge cases, making it difficult to detect chaos in domains, like biology, where measurements are noisy. However, newer tools promise to overcome these limitations. Here, we combine several such tools into an automated processing pipeline, and show that our pipeline can detect the presence (or absence) of chaos in noisy recordings, even for difficult edge cases. As a first-pass application of our pipeline, we show that heart rate variability is not chaotic as some have proposed, and instead reflects a stochastic process in both health and disease. Our tool is easy-to-use and freely available