Abstract. Dissolved cardiac myocytes can couple together and generate synchronous beatings in culture. We observed a synchronized early after-depolarization(EAD)-like rhythm in cultured cardiac myocytes and reproduced the experimental observation in a network mathematical model whose dynamics are close to a Hopf bifurcation. The mechanism for this EAD-like rhythm is attributed to noised-induced stochastic alternatings between the focus and the limit cycle. These results provide novel understandings for pathological heart rhythms like the early immature beatings.

PACS numbers: 05.45.Xt, 87.19.Hh, 87.18.Tt, 87.18.Hf

Print publication: Issue 11 (November 2009)
Received 8 July 2009