Dynamics of a FitzHugh-Nagumo system subjected to autocorrelated noise

We analyze the dynamics of the FitzHugh-Nagumo (FHN) model in the presence of colored noise and a periodic signal. Two cases are considered: (i) the dynamics of the membrane potential is affected by the noise, (ii) the slow dynamics of the recovery variable is subject to noise. We investigate the role of the colored noise on the neuron dynamics by the mean response time (MRT) of the neuron. We find meaningful modifications of the resonant activation (RA) and noise enhanced stability (NES) phenomena due to the correlation time of the noise. For strongly correlated noise we observe suppression of NES effect and persistence of RA phenomenon, with an efficiency enhancement of the neuronal response. Finally we show that the self-correlation of the colored noise causes a reduction of the effective noise intensity, which appears as a rescaling of the fluctuations affecting the FHN system.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figure

Asymptotic regime in N random interacting species

The asymptotic regime of a complex ecosystem with \emph{N}random interacting species and in the presence of an external multiplicative noise is analyzed. We find the role of the external noise on the long time probability distribution of the i-th density species, the extinction of species and the local field acting on the i-th population. We analyze in detail the transient dynamics of this field and the cavity field, which is the field acting on the $i^{th}$ species when this is absent. We find that the presence or the absence of some population give different asymptotic distributions of these fields.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures. To be published in Eur. Phys. J.

Role of the Colored Noise in Spatio-Temporal Behavior of Two Competing Species

We study the spatial distributions of two randomly interacting species, in the presence of an external multiplicative colored noise. The dynamics of the ecosystem is described by a coupled map lattice model. We find a nonmonotonic behavior in the formation of large scale spatial correlations as a function of the multiplicative colored noise intensity. This behavior is shifted towards higher values of the noise intensity for increasing correlation time of the noise.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Transient behavior of a population dynamical model

The transient behavior of an ecosystem with N random interacting species in the presence of a multiplicative noise is analyzed. The multiplicative noise mimics the interaction with the environment. We investigate different asymptotic dynamical regimes and the role of the external noise on the probability distribution of the local field.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Progress of Theoretical Physic

Noise in ecosystems: a short review

Noise, through its interaction with the nonlinearity of the living systems, can give rise to counter-intuitive phenomena such as stochastic resonance, noise-delayed extinction, temporal oscillations, and spatial patterns. In this paper we briefly review the noise-induced effects in three different ecosystems: (i) two competing species; (ii) three interacting species, one predator and two preys, and (iii) N-interacting species. The transient dynamics of these ecosystems are analyzed through generalized Lotka-Volterra equations in the presence of multiplicative noise, which models the interaction between the species and the environment. The interaction parameter between the species is random in cases (i) and (iii), and a periodical function, which accounts for the environmental temperature, in case (ii). We find noise-induced phenomena such as quasi-deterministic oscillations, stochastic resonance, noise-delayed extinction, and noise-induced pattern formation with nonmonotonic behaviors of patterns areas and of the density correlation as a function of the multiplicative noise intensity. The asymptotic behavior of the time average of the \emph{$i^{th}$} population when the ecosystem is composed of a great number of interacting species is obtained and the effect of the noise on the asymptotic probability distributions of the populations is discussed.Comment: 27 pages, 16 figures. Accepted for publication in Mathematical Biosciences and Engineerin

Nonmonotonic Pattern Formation in Three Species Lotka-Volterra System with Colored Noise

A coupled map lattice of generalized Lotka-Volterra equations in the presence of colored multiplicative noise is used to analyze the spatiotemporal evolution of three interacting species: one predator and two preys symmetrically competing each other. The correlation of the species concentration over the grid as a function of time and of the noise intensity is investigated. The presence of noise induces pattern formation, whose dimensions show a nonmonotonic behavior as a function of the noise intensity. The colored noise induces a greater dimension of the patterns with respect to the white noise case and a shift of the maximum of its area towards higher values of the noise intensity.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure