TITLE:
Modified Kuramoto Phase Model for Simulating Cardiac Pacemaker Cell Synchronization
AUTHORS:
Motohisa Osaka
KEYWORDS:
Synchronization, Sick Sinus Syndrome, Oscillator, Overdrive Suppression Test, Gap Junction
JOURNAL NAME:
Applied Mathematics,
Vol.8 No.9,
September
6,
2017
ABSTRACT: It has been suggested that sick sinus syndrome, which is due to the dysfunction
of the sinus node, may result from the sparser gap junctions and/or lower
intrinsic frequencies of pacemaker cells that occur with aging. Hence, in this
paper, the synchronization mechanism of pacemaker cells that lie in the sinus
node of the heart is examined using a modified Kuramoto phase model. Although
each element always interacts with all the others in the Kuramoto
phase model, in the proposed model, each element interacts only with the
neighbors over a certain time (called the interaction time) during Phase 4 of
the action potential. The pacemaker cell elements are arranged on a square
lattice, and each element connects with the elements surrounding it. The results
indicate that the diversity of intrinsic frequencies of pacemaker cells may
be necessary for synchronization. Moreover, increasing the proportion of
invalid connections causes the elements to take more time to synchronize until
eventually they do not synchronize at all, and decreasing the intrinsic frequencies
of the elements prevents them from synchronizing. Probably these
elucidate the cause of sick sinus syndrome.