Standing waves in the FitzHugh-Nagumo model of cardiac electrical activity.
When excitable media are submitted to appropriate time dependent boundary conditions, a standing wavelike pattern can be observed in the system, as shown in recent experiments. In the present analysis, the physical mechanism explaining the occurrence of such space-time patterns is shown to be a competition between Ohmic diffusion and an action potential propagation across the system, coupled with the existence of refractory states for excitable media.
Dauby
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PC
Institut de Physique B5a, Université de Liège, Allée du 6 Août 17, B-4000 Liège 1, Belgium. PC.Dauby@ulg.ac.be
Desaive
Th
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Croisier
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Kolh
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D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001683:Biological Clocks / Q000502:physiology*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006329:Heart Conduction System / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D032383:Myocytes, Cardiac / Q000502:physiology*; D009435:Synaptic Transmission / Q000502:physiology*