Stephanie Dodson, University of California Davis
Authors: Stephanie Dodson, Timothy Lewis
2022 AWM Research Symposium
Recent Advances in Mathematical Biology
Within cardiac tissue, regular cardiac function is characterized by coherent, periodic traveling waves of electrical activity that drive heart beats. When this process goes awry, the ensuing abnormal and irregular rhythms are known as arrhythmias. Arrhythmias are common and can be life-threatening. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the existence and stability of traveling waves that underlie heart beats and physiological conditions that promote and deter arrhythmia onset. In this talk we’ll introduce mathematical models of cardiac tissue and methods to numerically solve for relevant traveling waves and their stability. We’ll use these models and methods to investigate mechanisms of arrhythmia initiation.