Effects of noise in excitable systems

We review the behavior of theoretical models of excitable systems driven by Gaussian white noise. We focus mainly on those general properties of such systems that are due to noise, and present several applications of our findings in biophysics and lasers. As prototypes of excitable stochastic dynamics we consider the FitzHugh-Nagumo and the leaky integrate- and-fire model, as well as cellular automata and phase models. In these systems, taken a's individual units or as networks of globally or locally coupled elements, we study various phenomena due to noise, such as noise-induced oscillations, stochastic resonance, stochastic synchronization, noise-induced phase transitions and noise-induced pulse and spiral dynamics. Our approach is based on stochastic differential equations and their corresponding Fokker-Planck equations, treated by both analytical calculations and/or numerical simulations. We calculate and/or measure the rate and diffusion coefficient of the excitation process, as well as spectral quantities like power spectra and degree of coherence. Combined with a multiparametric bifurcation analysis of the corresponding cumulant equations, these approaches provide a comprehensive picture of the multifaceted dynamical behaviour of noisy excitable systems. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.