Excitable membranes are an important type of nonlinear dynamical system and
their study can be used to provide a connection between physical and biological
circuits. We discuss two models of excitable membranes important in cardiac and
neural tissues. One model is based on the Fitzhugh-Nagumo equations and the
other is based on a three-transistor excitable circuit. We construct a circuit
that simulates reentrant tachycardia and its treatment by surgical ablation.
This project is appropriate for advanced undergraduates as a laboratory
capstone project, or as a senior thesis or honors project, and can also be a
collaborative project, with one student responsible for the computational
predictions and another for the circuit construction and measurements.Comment: 9 pages, twocolumn, revised and published in American Journal of
Physic