Pulse propagation in discrete systems of coupled excitable cells

Propagation of pulses in myelinated fibers may be described by appropriate solutions of spatially discrete FitzHugh-Nagumo systems. In these systems, propagation failure may occur if either the coupling between nodes is not strong enough or the recovery is too fast. We give an asymptotic construction of pulses for spatially discrete FitzHugh-Nagumo systems which agrees well with numerical simulations and discuss evolution of initial data into pulses and pulse generation at a boundary. Formulas for the speed and length of pulses are also obtained.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, to appear in SIAM J. Appl. Mat

Wave trains, self-oscillations and synchronization in discrete media

We study wave propagation in networks of coupled cells which can behave as excitable or self-oscillatory media. For excitable media, an asymptotic construction of wave trains is presented. This construction predicts their shape and speed, as well as the critical coupling and the critical separation of time scales for propagation failure. It describes stable wave train generation by repeated firing at a boundary. In self-oscillatory media, wave trains persist but synchronization phenomena arise. An equation describing the evolution of the oscillator phases is derived.Comment: to appear in Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomen

Nonlinear physics of electrical wave propagation in the heart: a review

The beating of the heart is a synchronized contraction of muscle cells (myocytes) that are triggered by a periodic sequence of electrical waves (action potentials) originating in the sino-atrial node and propagating over the atria and the ventricles. Cardiac arrhythmias like atrial and ventricular fibrillation (AF,VF) or ventricular tachycardia (VT) are caused by disruptions and instabilities of these electrical excitations, that lead to the emergence of rotating waves (VT) and turbulent wave patterns (AF,VF). Numerous simulation and experimental studies during the last 20 years have addressed these topics. In this review we focus on the nonlinear dynamics of wave propagation in the heart with an emphasis on the theory of pulses, spirals and scroll waves and their instabilities in excitable media and their application to cardiac modeling. After an introduction into electrophysiological models for action potential propagation, the modeling and analysis of spatiotemporal alternans, spiral and scroll meandering, spiral breakup and scroll wave instabilities like negative line tension and sproing are reviewed in depth and discussed with emphasis on their impact in cardiac arrhythmias.Peer ReviewedPreprin

Nonlocal control of pulse propagation in excitable media

We study the effects of nonlocal control of pulse propagation in excitable media. As a generic example for an excitable medium the FitzHugh-Nagumo model with diffusion in the activator variable is considered. Nonlocal coupling in form of an integral term with a spatial kernel is added. We find that the nonlocal coupling modifies the propagating pulses of the reaction-diffusion system such that a variety of spatio-temporal patterns are generated including acceleration, deceleration, suppression, or generation of pulses, multiple pulses, and blinking pulse trains. It is shown that one can observe these effects for various choices of the integral kernel and the coupling scheme, provided that the control strength and spatial extension of the integral kernel is appropriate. In addition, an analytical procedure is developed to describe the stability borders of the spatially homogeneous steady state in control parameter space in dependence on the parameters of the nonlocal coupling

Effect of small-world topology on wave propagation on networks of excitable elements

We study excitation waves on a Newman-Watts small-world network model of coupled excitable elements. Depending on the global coupling strength, we find differing resilience to the added long-range links and different mechanisms of propagation failure. For high coupling strengths, we show agreement between the network and a reaction-diffusion model with additional mean-field term. Employing this approximation, we are able to estimate the critical density of long-range links for propagation failure.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures and 5 pages supplementary materia

Travelling waves in a model of quasi-active dendrites with active spines

Dendrites, the major components of neurons, have many different types of branching structures and are involved in receiving and integrating thousands of synaptic inputs from other neurons. Dendritic spines with excitable channels can be present in large densities on the dendrites of many cells. The recently proposed Spike-Diffuse-Spike (SDS) model that is described by a system of point hot-spots (with an integrate-and-fire process) embedded throughout a passive tree has been shown to provide a reasonable caricature of a dendritic tree with supra-threshold dynamics. Interestingly, real dendrites equipped with voltage-gated ion channels can exhibit not only supra-threshold responses, but also sub-threshold dynamics. This sub-threshold resonant-like oscillatory behaviour has already been shown to be adequately described by a quasi-active membrane. In this paper we introduce a mathematical model of a branched dendritic tree based upon a generalisation of the SDS model where the active spines are assumed to be distributed along a quasi-active dendritic structure. We demonstrate how solitary and periodic travelling wave solutions can be constructed for both continuous and discrete spine distributions. In both cases the speed of such waves is calculated as a function of system parameters. We also illustrate that the model can be naturally generalised to an arbitrary branched dendritic geometry whilst remaining computationally simple. The spatio-temporal patterns of neuronal activity are shown to be significantly influenced by the properties of the quasi-active membrane. Active (sub- and supra-threshold) properties of dendrites are known to vary considerably among cell types and animal species, and this theoretical framework can be used in studying the combined role of complex dendritic morphologies and active conductances in rich neuronal dynamics

Negative tension of scroll wave filaments and turbulence in three-dimensional excitable media and application in cardiac dynamics

Scroll waves are vortices that occur in three-dimensional excitable media. Scroll waves have been observed in a variety of systems including cardiac tissue, where they are associated with cardiac arrhythmias. The disorganization of scroll waves into chaotic behavior is thought to be the mechanism of ventricular fibrillation, whose lethality is widely known. One possible mechanism for this process of scroll wave instability is negative filament tension. It was discovered in 1987 in a simple two variables model of an excitable medium. Since that time, negative filament tension of scroll waves and the resulting complex, often turbulent dynamics was studied in many generic models of excitable media as well as in physiologically realistic models of cardiac tissue. In this article, we review the work in this area from the first simulations in FitzHugh-Nagumo type models to recent studies involving detailed ionic models of cardiac tissue. We discuss the relation of negative filament tension and tissue excitability and the effects of discreteness in the tissue on the filament tension. Finally, we consider the application of the negative tension mechanism to computational cardiology, where it may be regarded as a fundamental mechanism that explains differences in the onset of arrhythmias in thin and thick tissue