title: Wave propagation in an excitable medium with a negatively sloped restitution curve.
abstract: Recent experimental studies show that the restitution curve of cardiac tissue can have a negative slope. We study how the negative slope of the restitution curve can influence basic processes in excitable media, such as periodic forcing of an excitable cell, circulation of a pulse in a ring, and spiral wave rotation in two dimensions. We show that negatively sloped restitution curve can result in instabilities if the slope of the restitution curve is steeper than -1 and report different manifestations of this instability. (c) 2002 American Institute of Physics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Theoretical Biology, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, Utrecht, 3584, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: A. V.
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Panfilov
authors.forename: C. W.
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Zemlin