Peristalsis by pulses of activity

TL;DR

This paper models peristalsis as a train of solitary waves of activity propagating through passive tissue, revealing a critical regime that may be physiologically beneficial.

Contribution

It introduces a novel discrete FPU-type model for peristalsis, demonstrating the existence of a critical regime with potential physiological advantages.

Findings

Peristalsis can be represented by solitary waves of activity.

A critical regime in wave propagation is identified.

The model suggests physiological benefits of this regime.

Abstract

Peristalsis by actively generated waves of muscle contraction is one of the most fundamental ways of producing motion in living systems. We show that peristalsis can be modeled by a train of rectangular-shaped solitary waves of localized activity propagating through otherwise passive matter. Our analysis is based on the FPU-type discrete model accounting for active stresses and we reveal the existence in this problem of a critical regime which we argue to be physiologically advantageous.