Search Results
Phase sensitive excitability of a limit cycle
2017, Franovic, Igor, Omelchenko, Oleh E., Wolfrum, Matthias
The classical notion of excitability refers to an equilibrium state that shows under the influence of perturbations a nonlinear threshold-like behavior. Here, we extend this concept by demonstrating how periodic orbits can exhibit a specific form of excitable behavior where the nonlinear threshold-like response appears only after perturbations applied within a certain part of the periodic orbit, i.e the excitability happens to be phase sensitive. As a paradigmatic example of this concept we employ the classical FitzHugh-Nagumo system. The relaxation oscillations, appearing in the oscillatory regime of this system, turn out to exhibit a phase sensitive nonlinear thresholdlike response to perturbations, which can be explained by the nonlinear behavior in the vicinity of the canard trajectory. Triggering the phase sensitive excitability of the relaxation oscillations by noise we find a characteristic non-monotone dependence of the mean spiking rate of the relaxation oscillation on the noise level. We explain this non-monotone dependence as a result of an interplay of two competing effects of the increasing noise: the growing efficiency of the excitation and the degradation of the nonlinear response.
Leap-frog patterns in systems of two coupled FitzHugh-Nagumo units
2018, Eydam, Sebastian, Franovic, Igor, Wolfrum, Matthias
We study a system of two identical FitzHugh-Nagumo units with a mutual linear coupling in the fast variables. While an attractive coupling always leads to synchronous behavior, a repulsive coupling can give rise to dynamical regimes with alternating spiking order, called leap-frogging. We analyze various types of periodic and chaotic leap-frogging regimes, using numerical pathfollowing methods to investigate their emergence and stability, as well as to obtain the complex bifurcation scenario which organizes their appearance in parameter space. In particular, we show that the stability region of the simplest periodic leap-frog pattern has the shape of a locking cone pointing to the canard transition of the uncoupled system. We also discuss the role of the timescale separation in the coupled FitzHugh-Nagumo system and the relation of the leap-frog solutions to the theory of mixed-mode oscillations in multiple timescale systems.