Synchronization of viscoelastically coupled excitable oscillators

Abstract

Viscoelastically coupled excitable oscillators are used to model individually beating spatially separatedtextlessbrtextgreatercardiomyocytes surrounded by an extracellular matrix (ECM). We investigate how mechanical coupling via thetextlessbrtextgreaterECM can synchronize two such oscillators with excitation contraction coupling and electromechanical feedbacktextlessbrtextgreaterand how this synchronization depends on the rheological properties of the ECM. Extending our study to a lineartextlessbrtextgreaterchain of coupled oscillators we find a transition to synchronization as the ECM becomes stiffer. In the case oftextlessbrtextgreaterpurely elastic coupling we observe antiphase chimera states.

Florian Spreckelsen

PhD student