title: Spiral breakup in an array of coupled cells: the role of the intercellular conductance.
abstract: We study numerically how the intercellular conductance affects the process of spiral breakup in an array of coupled excitable cells. The cell dynamics are described by the Aliev-Panfilov model, and the intercellular connection is made via Ohmic elements. We find that decreasing intercellular conductance can prevent the breaking up of a spiral wave into a complex spatiotemporal pattern. We study the mechanism of this effect and show that the breakup disappears because of increasing the diastolic interval of an initial spiral wave.
authors.affiliation: Department of Theoretical Biology, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, Utrecht, 3584 CH, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: A V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Panfilov
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D002450:Cell Communication / Q000502:physiology*; D004553:Electric Conductivity; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009206:Myocardium / Q000166:cytology*