Numerical study of the death and breakup of spiral wave in the networks of thermosensitive neurons

Abstract

The experimential evidences confirm that spiral waves are observed in the disinhibited mammalian neocortex. The scheme of ceullar networks is used to simulate the formation and the evolution of spiral wave in the neocortical slices. The regular networks of neurons are constructed in the two-dimensional space, the dynamical properties of thermosensitive neurons is described by temperature factor, and the effect of membrane temperature on the evolution of spiral wave is investigated in detail. A statistical factor of synchronization is defined to measure the critical condition inducing phase transition of spiral wave (death or breakup) by the factor of temperature of membrane. It is confirmed that spiral wave is removed and the whole networks become homogeneous and synchronous completely when the membrane temperature exceeds a certain threshold; the breakup of spiral wave is induced in the presence of weak channel noise being considered. Furthermore, it is suggested that the mechanism of temporary heat stupor could be the blocking of spiral wave propagation in some functional domain.