Anomalous drift of spiral waves in heterogeneous excitable media

TL;DR

This paper investigates the unexpected movement of spiral waves in heterogeneous excitable media, revealing anomalous drift towards more excitable regions, which may lead to complex patterns linked to cardiac arrhythmias.

Contribution

It reports the first observation of anomalous drift of spiral waves towards higher excitability regions in reaction-diffusion models, expanding understanding of wave dynamics in heterogeneous media.

Findings

Spiral waves exhibit anomalous drift towards higher excitability regions.

Anomalous drift can lead to complex spatio-temporal patterns.

Findings have implications for understanding cardiac arrhythmias.

Abstract

We study the drift of spiral waves in a simple model of heterogeneous excitable medium, having gradients in local excitability or cellular coupling. For the first time, we report the anomalous drift of spiral waves towards regions having higher excitability, in contrast to all earlier observations in reaction-diffusion models of excitable media. Such anomalous drift can promote the onset of complex spatio-temporal patterns, e.g., those responsible for life-threatening arrhythmias in the heart.