Frequency Entrainment of Coupled Hodgkin-Huxley-Type Oscillators for Modeling Gastro-Intestinal Electrical Activity

Abstract

The concept of linked oscillators applied to the modeling of electrical rhythms in the mammalian digestive tract is extended to cover the use of Hodgkin-Huxley-type dynamics. as the basic oscillating unit. The singe action potential of the normal Hodgkin-Huxley equations is converted into auto-rhythmic behavior either by the addition of a shunt conductance term or by increasing the power of the non-linear potassium conductance term to 6. Interconnection of units of this type using either resistive, capacitive, orinductive terms causes entrainment at a frequency not greater than the highest uncoupled frequency in the array. Multiple solutions have not been found in contrast to coupled Van der Pol oscillators.