Filament tension and phase-locked drift of meandering scroll waves

TL;DR

This paper investigates the dynamics of meandering scroll waves, revealing that they exhibit filament tension on average, but phase-locked drift dominates under certain conditions, with implications for understanding cardiac arrhythmias.

Contribution

It demonstrates the conditions under which filament tension or phase-locked drift govern scroll wave behavior, advancing understanding of their dynamics in excitable media.

Findings

Scroll waves exhibit filament tension when averaged over the meander cycle.

Strong filament curvature or medium thickness gradients lead to phase-locked drift.

Results are validated in computational models of cardiac tissue.

Abstract

Rotating scroll waves are self-organising patterns which are found in many oscillating or excitable systems. Here we show that quasi-periodic (meandering) scroll waves, which include the rotors that organise cardiac arrhythmias, exhibit filament tension when averaged over the meander cycle. With strong filament curvature or medium thickness gradients, however, scroll wave dynamics are governed by phase-locked drift instead of filament tension. Our results are validated in computational models of cycloidal meander and a cardiac tissue model with linear core.