Mathematical Framework for Breathing Chimera States

About two decades ago it was discovered that systems of nonlocally coupled oscillators can exhibit unusual symmetry-breaking patterns composed of coherent and incoherent regions. Since then such patterns, called chimera states, have been the subject of intensive study but mostly in the stationary case when the coarse-grained system dynamics remains unchanged over time. Nonstationary coherence–incoherence patterns, in particular periodically breathing chimera states, were also reported, however not investigated systematically because of their complexity. In this paper we suggest a semi-analytic solution to the above problem providing a mathematical framework for the analysis of breathing chimera states in a ring of nonlocally coupled phase oscillators. Our approach relies on the consideration of an integro-differential equation describing the long-term coarse-grained dynamics of the oscillator system. For this equation we specify a class of solutions relevant to breathing chimera states. We derive a self-consistency equation for these solutions and carry out their stability analysis. We show that our approach correctly predicts macroscopic features of breathing chimera states. Moreover, we point out its potential application to other models which can be studied using the Ott–Antonsen reduction technique.

Synchronization in the connectome: Metastable oscillatory modes emerge from interactions in the brain spacetime network

A rich repertoire of oscillatory signals is detected from human brains with electro- and magnetoencephalography (EEG/MEG). However, the principles underwriting coherent oscillations and their link with neural activity remain unclear. Here, we hypothesise that the emergence of transient brain rhythms is a signature of weakly stable synchronization between spatially distributed brain areas, occurring at network-specific collective frequencies due to non-negligible conduction times. We test this hypothesis using a phenomenological network model to simulate interactions between neural mass potentials (resonating at 40Hz) in the structural connectome. Crucially, we identify a critical regime where metastable oscillatory modes emerge spontaneously in the delta (0.5-4Hz), theta (4-8Hz), alpha (8-13Hz) and beta (13-30Hz) frequency bands from weak synchronization of subsystems, closely approximating the MEG power spectra from 89 healthy individuals. Grounded in the physics of delay-coupled oscillators, these numerical analyses demonstrate the role of the spatiotemporal connectome in structuring brain activity in the frequency domain.

The linearity of the master stability function

The master stability function (MSF) is an approach to evaluate the local stability of the synchronization in coupled oscillators. Computing the MSF of a network according to its parameters results in a curve whose shape is dependent on the nodes’ dynamics, network topology, coupling function, and coupling strength. This paper calculates the MSF of networks of two diffusively coupled oscillators by considering different single variable and multi-variable couplings. Then, the linearity of the MSF is investigated by fitting a straight line to the MSF curve, and the root mean square error is obtained. It is observed that the multi-variable coupling with equal coefficients on all variables results in a linear MSF regardless of the dynamics of the nodes.

Influence of coupling on the dynamics of three delayed oscillators

The purpose of this study is to construct the asymptotics of the relaxation regimes of a system of differential equations with delay, which simulates three diffusion-coupled oscillators with nonlinear compactly supported delayed feedback under the assumption that the factor in front of the feedback function is large enough. Also, the purpose is to study the influence of the coupling between the oscillators on the nonlocal dynamics of the model. Methods. We construct the asymptotics of solutions of the considered model with initial conditions from a special set. From the asymptotics of the solutions, we obtain an operator of the translation along the trajectories that transforms the set of initial functions into a set of the same type. The main part of this operator is described by a finite-dimensional mapping. The study of its dynamics makes it possible to refine the asymptotics of the solutions of the original model and draw conclusions about its dynamics. Results. It follows from the form of the constructed mapping that for positive coupling parameters of the original model, starting from a certain moment of time, all three generators have the same main part of the asymptotics — the generators are “synchronized”. At negative values of the coupling parameter, both inhomogeneous relaxation cycles and irregular regimes are possible. The connection of these modes with the modes of the constructed finite-dimensional mapping is described. Conclusion. From the results of the work it follows that the dynamics of the model under consideration is fundamentally influenced by the value of the coupling parameter between the generators.