Excitable dynamics in neural and cardiac systems

Abstract

The application of mathematics, physics and engineering to medical research is continuously growing; interactions among these disciplines have become increasingly important and have contributed to an improved understanding of clinical and biological phenomena, with implications for disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment. This special issue presents examples of this synergy, with a particular focus on the investigation of cardiac and neural excitability.This issue includes 24 original research papers and covers a broad range of topics related to the physiological and pathophysiological function of the brain and the heart. Studies span scales from isolated neurons and small networks of neurons to whole-organ dynamics for the brain and from cardiac subcellular domains and cardiomyocytes to onedimensional tissues for the heart.This preface is part of the Special Issue on "Excitable Dynamics in Neural and Cardiac Systems".

Spatial distribution of heterogeneity as a modulator of collective dynamics in pancreatic beta-cell networks and beyond

“…Many nonlinear systems exhibit excitable behaviour, whereby they exhibit large-amplitude oscillations in response to small-amplitude, transient perturbations. One prominent example in biology is electrical excitability in cells, which underlies the function of neurons ( Izhikevich, 2000 ; De Maesschalck and Wechselberger, 2015 ; Wedgwood et al, 2021 ), cardiac cells ( Majumder et al, 2018 ; Barrio et al, 2020 ), pituitary cells ( Sanchez-Cardenas et al, 2010 ; Hodson et al, 2012 ) and pancreatic beta cells ( Bertram et al, 2007 ; McKenna et al, 2016 ). Moreover, the the study of these systems is broadly applicable, and such excitable dynamics are also observed in semiconductor lasers ( Terrien et al, 2020 , 2021 ), social media networks ( Mathiesen et al, 2013 ), epidemiology ( Vannucchi and Boccaletti, 2004 ), and wildfires ( Punckt et al, 2015 ).…”