title: Frequency enhancement in coupled noisy excitable elements.
abstract: Oscillatory dynamics of coupled excitable FitzHugh-Nagumo elements in the presence of noise is investigated as a function of the coupling strength g. For two such coupled elements, their frequencies are enhanced and will synchronize at a frequency higher than the uncoupled frequencies of each element. As g increases, there is an unexpected peak in the frequency enhancement before reaching synchronization. The results can be understood with an analytic model based on the excitation across a potential barrier whose height is controlled by g. Simulation results of a coupled square lattice can quantitatively reproduce the unexpected peak in the variation of the beating rates observed in cultured cardiac cells experiments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Graduate Institute of Biophysics, and Center for Complex Systems, National Central University, Chungli, Taiwan 320, Republic of China.
authors.forename: Wei-Yin
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Chiang
authors.forename: Pik-Yin
authors.initials: PY
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.forename: C K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Chan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003198:Computer Simulation; D009206:Myocardium / Q000166:cytology; D009991:Oscillometry