We introduce a geometrical extension of the FitzHugh-Nagumo equations describing propagation of electrical impulses in nerve axons. In this extension, the axon is modeled as a warped cylinder, rather than a straight line, as is usually done, while pulses propagate on its surface, as is the case with real axons.
We prove the stability of electrical impulses for a standard cylinder and existence and stability of pulse-like solutions for warped cylinders whose radii are small and vary slowly along their lengths.
We introduce a spatially extended transport kinetic FitzHugh-Nagumo model with forced local interactions and prove that its hydrodynamic limit converges towards the classical nonlocal reaction-diffusion FitzHugh-Nagumo system. Our approach is based on a relative entropy method, where the macroscopic quantities of the kinetic model are compared with the solution to the nonlocal reaction-diffusion system. This approach allows to make the rigorous link between kinetic and reaction-diffusion models.
In this work a new mathematical model for complex neural networks is presented by the partly diffusive FitzHugh-Nagumo equations with ensemble boundary coupling. We analyze the dissipative dynamics and boundary coupling dynamics of the solution semiflow with sharp estimates. The exponential synchronization of this kind complex neural networks is proved under the condition that synaptic stimulation signal strength reaches a threshold quantitatively expressed.
We consider a spatially extended mesoscopic FitzHugh-Nagumo model with strong local interactions and prove that its asymptotic limit converges towards the classical nonlocal reaction-diffusion FitzHugh-Nagumo system. As the local interactions strongly dominate, the weak solution to the mesoscopic equation under consideration converges to the local equilibrium, which has the form of Dirac distribution concentrated to an averaged membrane potential. Our approach is based on techniques widely developed in kinetic theory (Wasserstein distance, relative entropy method), where macroscopic quantities…
In this paper we focus on a spatially extended FitzHugh-Nagumo model with interactions. In the regime where strong and local interactions dominate, we quantify how the probability density of neurons concentrates into a Dirac distribution. Previous work investigating this question have provided relative bounds in integrability spaces. Using a Hopf-Cole framework, we derive precise $L^\infty$ estimates using subtle explicit sub- and super- solutions which prove, with rates of convergence, that the blow up profile is Gaussian.
We consider a spatially extended mean-field model of a FitzHugh-Nagumo neural network, with a rescaled interaction kernel. Our main purpose is to prove that its asymptotic limit in the regime of strong local interactions converges toward a system of reaction-diffusion equations taking account for theaverage quantities of the network. Our approach is based on a modulated energy argument, to compare the macroscopic quantities computed from the solution of the transport equation, and the solution of the limit system. The main difficulty, compared to the literature, lies in the need of regularity …
Patterns and waves are basic and important phenomena that govern the dynamics of physical and biological systems. A common theme in investigating such systems is to identify the intrinsic factors responsible for such self-organization. The $Γ$-convergence is a well-known technique applicable to variational formulation in studying the concentration phenomena of stable patterns. A geometric variational functional associated with the $Γ$-limit of standing waves of FitzHugh-Nagumo system has recently been built. This article studies the $Γ$-limit of traveling waves. To the best of our knowledge, t…
The microscopic bidomain problem with FitzHhugh-Nagumo ionic transport is studied in the $L_p\!-\!L_q$-framework. Reformulating the problem as a semilinear evolution equation on the interface, local well-posedness is proved in strong as well as in weak settings. We obtain solvability for initial data in the critical spaces of the problem. For dimension $d\leq 3$, by means of energy estimates and a recent result of Serrin type, global existence is shown. Finally, stability of spatially constant equilibria is investigated, to the result that the stability properties of such equilibria parallel t…
We consider the long-time behavior of a population of mean-field oscillators modeling the activity of interacting excitable neurons in large population. Each neuron is represented by its voltage and recovery variables, which are solution to a FitzHugh-Nagumo system, and interacts with the rest of the population through a mean-field linear coupling, in the presence of noise. The aim of the paper is to study the emergence of collective oscillatory behaviors induced by noise and interaction on such a system. The main difficulty of the present analysis is that we consider the kinetic case, where i…
We investigate the dynamics of a limit of interacting FitzHugh-Nagumo neurons in the regime of large interaction coefficients. We consider the dynamics described by a mean-field model given by a nonlinear evolution partial differential equation representing the probability distribution of one given neuron in a large network. The case of weak connectivity previously studied displays a unique, exponentially stable, stationary solution. Here, we consider the case of strong connectivities, and exhibit the presence of possibly non-unique stationary behaviors or non-stationary behaviors. To this end…
We study invasion fronts in the FitzHugh--Nagumo equation in the oscillatory regime using singular perturbation techniques. Phenomenologically, localized perturbations of the unstable steady-state grow and spread, creating temporal oscillations whose phase is modulated spatially. The phase modulation appears to be selected by an invasion front that describes the behavior in the leading edge of the spreading process. We construct these invasion fronts for large regions of parameter space using singular perturbation techniques. Key ingredients are the construction of periodic orbits, their unsta…
We investigate the stability of traveling-pulse solutions to the stochastic FitzHughNagumo equations with additive noise. Special attention is given to the effect of small noise on the classical deterministically stable fast traveling pulse. Our method is based on adapting the velocity of the traveling wave by solving a scalar stochastic ordinary differential equation (SODE) and tracking perturbations to the wave meeting a system of a scalar stochastic partial differential equation (SPDE) coupled to a scalar ordinary differential equation (ODE). This approach has been recently employed by Krüg…
This paper studies the solutions of a reaction--diffusion system with nonlinearities that generalise the Lengyel--Epstein and FitzHugh--Nagumo nonlinearities. Sufficient conditions are derived for the global asymptotic stability of the system's solutions and confirmed through numerical Examples.
