Characterizing mixed-mode oscillations shaped by canard and bifurcation structure in a three-dimensional cardiac cell model

Abstract

This paper investigates mixed-mode oscillations (MMOs) with a three-dimensional conductance-based cardiac action potential model, which makes the heart beat in a nonrenewable way. The 3D model was entailed by utilizing voltage-dependent timescales to describe the mechanism in which MMOs are generated. As expected, motivated by geometric singular perturbation theory, our analysis explains in detail the geometric mechanisms that there is a range of parameters under which the cardiac model highlights that the presence of MMOs is induced by the intrinsical canard phenomenon. Much is currently known about the geometric mechanisms, for a folded saddle, the two singular canards perturb to maximal canards. Characteristics of the stimulus current such as frequency and duration determine which early afterdepolarizations (EADs), as a special case of MMOs bears, as well as the article compares the detailed manifold structures of original and dimensionless systems with square wave pulses by setting the pacing cycle length. An exceedingly vital technique of the analysis is the slow–fast dynamics analysis by which the system governs multiple timescale structures analytically. A more novel and successful multiple-timescale approach divides the system so that there is only one fast variable and demonstrates that the MMOs arise from canard dynamics, such as using a three-variable model in which two variables are treated as “slow” and one treated as “fast”, which the layer problem and the reduced problem are considered to explain the trajectory on the critical manifold. Meanwhile, if one variable was regarded as the single slow variable, substantial bifurcation properties are discovered for slow–fast system, as well as general one-parameter bifurcation type is discussed for the whole system similarly. By focusing on the first Lyapunov coefficient of the Hopf bifurcation, which decides whether the bifurcation is supercritical or subcritical, it was shown that an unstable limit cycle can arise via a delayed subcritical Hopf bifurcation for the original system. Meanwhile, the dynamical studies of cardiac model have major implications for further elaborating the complex dynamic behaviors, such as EADs, which can lead to tissue-level arrhythmias. Ultimately, it has turned these researches into a considerable player in the signal and information transmission for underlying nervous systems.