Mathematics Colloquium
Brad Peercy
University of Maryland
Title:Loss of Synchrony to Silencing in Networks of Excitable Cells: Impact of Cell and Coupling Heterogeneity in Small Network Examples
Date: Friday, March 29, 2024
Place and Time: Love 101, 3:05-3:55 pm
Abstract. Experiments on pancreatic islets have raised a question about the potential unitary impact of certain cells in islet synchrony. Previous modeling to corroborate these findings under the suggested conditions proved unfruitful, but wide parameter searches did identify cases where silencing or ablating individual beta cells could completely or nearly completely silence islet behavior. This includes three cell beta cell networks and a small 2D grid network of simpler two-variable excitable cells. We find examples of "switch" behavior in each case and look to generalize.