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Updated: Aug 17, 2026

Stochastic Noise Application for the Assessment of Medial Vestibular Nucleus Neuron Sensitivity In Vitro
Published on: August 28, 2019
Wave nucleation rate in excitable systems in the low noise limit
1Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, University of California, San Diego, California 92093-0318, USA.
Abstract:
Motivated by recent experiments on intracellular calcium dynamics, we study the general issue of fluctuation-induced nucleation of waves in excitable media. We utilize a stochastic Fitzhugh-Nagumo model for this study, a spatially extended nonpotential pair of equations driven by thermal (i.e., white) noise. The nucleation rate is determined by finding the most probable escape path via minimization of an action related to the deviation of the fields from their deterministic trajectories. Our results pave the way both for studies of more realistic models of calcium dynamics as well as of nucleation phenomena in other nonequilibrium pattern-forming processes.
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