Spatial Trigger Waves: Positive Feedback Gets You a Long Way

Overview

Journal Mol Biol Cell

Specialties Cell Biology
Molecular Biology

Date 2014 Nov 5

PMID 25368427

Citations 58

Authors

Lendert Gelens

Graham A Anderson

James E Ferrell Jr

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Trigger waves are a recurring biological phenomenon involved in transmitting information quickly and reliably over large distances. Well-characterized examples include action potentials propagating along the axon of a neuron, calcium waves in various tissues, and mitotic waves in Xenopus eggs. Here we use the FitzHugh-Nagumo model, a simple model inspired by the action potential that is widely used in physics and theoretical biology, to examine different types of trigger waves-spatial switches, pulses, and oscillations-and to show how they arise.

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