Bioelectrical domain walls in homogeneous tissues.

ABSTRACT: Electrical signaling in biology is typically associated with action potentials, transient spikes in membrane voltage that return to baseline. Hodgkin-Huxley and related conductance-based models of electrophysiology belong to a more general class of reaction-diffusion equations which could, in principle, support spontaneous emergence of patterns of membrane voltage which are stable in time but structured in space. Here we show theoretically and experimentally that homogeneous or nearly homogeneous tissues can undergo spontaneous spatial symmetry breaking through a purely electrophysiological mechanism, leading to formation of domains with different resting potentials separated by stable bioelectrical domain walls. Transitions from one resting potential to another can occur through long-rang

SUBMITTER: McNamara HM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8008956 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature