Colloquium: Transitions and transients in complex spatio-temporal dynamics of the heart

Date

Apr 23, 2018

Time

4:30 PM - 5:30 PM

Speaker

Prof. Dr. Ulrich Parlitz

Affiliation

MPI f. Dynamik und Selbstorganisation

Language

en

Main Topic

Physik

Other Topics

Physik

Description

Electro-mechanical excitation waves in the heart may exhibit different spatio-temporal dynamics ranging from repeated plane waves to scroll waves or spatio-temporal chaos, resulting in life threatening arrhythmias. This kind of chaotic dynamics in excitable cardiac media is often characterised by significant complexity fluctuations (including laminar phases) and can be non-persistent exhibiting supertransients, with lifetimes of the chaotic phases increasing exponentially with the system size. Terminating or at least shortening chaotic transients can be life saving in the medical context of cardiac arrhythmias. Therefore, we study the impact of perturbations on the duration of transients and features of the terminal phase of chaotic transients. Practically, such perturbations can be applied via so-called virtual electrodes where electrical heterogeneities of the cardiac muscle act as local excitation sites when subjected to a global electric field. In the talk we shall present novel results on the nonlinear dynamics of the heart including features of the terminal phase of transient chaos, parameter and state estimation, as well as experimental studies and modalities.

Last modified: Apr 17, 2018, 9:48:23 AM