Study on the effect of stochastic perturbations on the dynamics of spiral wave

Abstract

The cardiac muscle, which is composed of many discrete cells, is a typical excitable medium. In this paper, we study the effect of refractory period with stochastic perturbations on dynamical behaviors of spiral wave using the model of discrete excitable medium. When the perturbations are random in space, the stability of spiral wave is related to the amplitude of the perturbations and the number of perturbation cells. Computer simulation results show that refractory period perturbations can result in meandering, breakup and disappearance of the spiral waves under suitable conditions, and then their mechanisms are analyzed.