PARALLEL ANALOG COMPUTATION OF COUPLED BIOLOGICAL OSCILLATORS

In this work the dynamics of coupled nonlinear oscillators, which are ubiquitous in biology, is experimentally studied by using electrical relaxation oscillators. The results of this analog computation obtained with two and three coupled oscillators are in agreement with the results known from numerical approaches. Phase death, which is a mutual annihilation of oscillations, is a generic phenomenon. All modes known from approaches using identical oscillators have been found. Additionally we observed new generic modes that are caused by inhomogeneities of the oscillators, such differences being typical for biological cells. Simulations of excitable electrical oscillators yield similar results.