The collective behaviors of coupled, stochastically excitable elements subjected to global periodic forcing are investigated numerically and analytically. We show that the whole system undergoes a period-doubling bifurcation as the driving period decreases, while the individual elements still exhibit random excitations. Using a mean-field representation, we show that this macroscopic bifurcation behavior is caused by interactions between the random excitation, the refractory period, and recruitment (spatial cooperativity) of the excitable elements.

Reservoir computing, a new method of machine learning, has recently been used to predict the state evolution of various chaotic dynamic systems. It has significant advantages in terms of training cost and adjusted parameters; however, the prediction length is limited. For classic reservoir computing, the prediction length can only reach five to six Lyapunov times. Here, we modified the method of reservoir computing by adding feedback, continuous or discrete, to “calibrate” the input of the reservoir and then reconstruct the entire dynamic systems. The reconstruction length appreciably increased and the training length obviously decreased. The reconstructing of dynamical systems is studied in detail under this method. The reconstruction can be significantly improved both in length and accuracy. Additionally, we summarized the effect of different kinds of input feedback. The more it interacts with others in dynamical equations, the better the reconstructions. Nonlinear terms can reveal more information than linear terms once the interaction terms are equal. This method has proven effective via several classical chaotic systems. It can be superior to traditional reservoir computing in reconstruction, provides new hints in computing promotion, and may be used in some real applications.

In this paper we study nonlinear oscillatory systems consisting of two media, one supporting forward propagating waves and the other inwardly propagating waves, separated by an interface. We find that the interface can select the type of wave. Under certain well-defined parameter condition, these waves propagate in two different media with the same frequency and same wave number; the interface of the two media is transparent to these waves. The frequency and wave number of these interface-selected waves (ISWs) are predicted explicitly. When parameters are varied from this parameter set, the wave numbers of the two domains become different, and the difference increases from zero continuously as the distance between the given parameters and this parameter set increases from zero. It is found that ISWs can play crucial roles in practical problems of wave competition, e.g., ISWs can suppress spirals and antispirals.

Recently, waves propagating with negative phase velocity [simply called antiwaves (AWs)] have attracted great attention in the area of nonlinear oscillatory systems. In the present work we investigate the parameter conditions for AWs. So far AWs have been revealed from systems slightly beyond Hopf bifurcation or some other instabilities, and from some wave sources with certain restricted frequencies. Here we study general oscillatory media (including generalized complex Ginzburg-Landau systems and Brusselator model) and specify the parameter conditions of AWs by certain characteristic behaviors of the dispersion relation of the systems. Moreover, we predict that AWs and NWs (normal waves with positive phase velocity) can be realized at a same intrinsic parameter values but different pacing frequencies in parameter regions where the dispersion relation exhibits a maximum or minimum. All numerical simulations are perfectly consistent with these theoretical predictions where the oscillatory systems are driven by external periodic pacings with 1:1 frequency locking responses.

The heart is an excitable medium which is excited by membrane potential depolarization and propagation. Membrane potential depolarization brings in calcium (Ca) through the Ca channels to trigger intracellular Ca release for contraction of the heart. Ca also affects voltage via Ca-dependent ionic currents, and thus, voltage and Ca are bidirectionally coupled. It has been shown that the voltage subsystem or the Ca subsystem can generate its own dynamical instabilities which are affected by their bidirectional couplings, leading to complex dynamics of action potential and Ca cycling. Moreover, the dynamics become spatiotemporal in tissue in which cells are diffusively coupled through voltage. A widely investigated spatiotemporal dynamics is spatially discordant alternans (SDA) in which action potential duration (APD) or Ca amplitude exhibits temporally period-2 and spatially out-of-phase patterns, i.e., APD-SDA and Ca-SDA patterns, respectively. However, the mechanisms of formation, stability, and synchronization of APD-SDA and Ca-SDA patterns remain incompletely understood. In this paper, we use cardiac tissue models described by an amplitude equation, coupled iterated maps, and reaction-diffusion equations with detailed physiology (the ionic model) to perform analytical and computational investigations. We show that, when the Ca subsystem is stable, the Ca-SDA pattern always follows the APD-SDA pattern, and thus, they are always synchronized. When the Ca subsystem is unstable, synchronization of APD-SDA and Ca-SDA patterns depends on the stabilities of both subsystems, their coupling strengths, and the spatial scales of the initial Ca-SDA patterns. Spontaneous (initial condition-independent) synchronization is promoted by enhancing APD instability and reducing Ca instability as well as stronger Ca-to-APD and APD-to-Ca coupling, a pattern formation caused by dynamical instabilities. When Ca is more unstable and APD is less unstable or APD-to-Ca coupling is weak, synchronization of APD-SDA and Ca-SDA patterns is promoted by larger initially synchronized Ca-SDA clusters, i.e., initial condition-dependent synchronization. The synchronized APD-SDA and Ca-SDA patterns can be locked in-phase, antiphase, or quasiperiodic depending on the coupling relationship between APD and Ca. These theoretical and simulation results provide mechanistic insights into the APD-SDA and Ca-SDA dynamics observed in experimental studies.

Wave competition is an important phenomenon for pattern formation and pattern control, which are required in many practical applications. In this work we consider the competition of wave trains around interfaces of two one-dimensional oscillatory media, modeled by complex Ginzburg-Landau equations with different system control parameters. The wave trains are generated by pacings at two boundaries of the media. In the presence of both normal wave trains and antiwave trains, extremely rich phenomena can be observed by varying the control parameters of the systems. These rich behaviors can be fully understood and physically well explained, based on the competitions of three kinds of wave trains: the two wave trains generated by external pacings and the wave train generated internally at the interface.