Antispirals in an artificial tissue of oscillatory cells

In a tissue of oscillatory cells the active intracellular medium is surrounded by a membrane and the cells are separated by inactive extracellular medium. The synchronization properties of a system of such coupled oscillatory cells have been emulated using the light-sensitive Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction. Experimental results for four coupled cells are confirmed by numerical simulations. We have furthermore demonstrated the existence of antispirals and antipacemaker waves with inward propagating waves in larger cell assemblies of this type. Such dynamical structures are extremely rare in homogeneous chemical systems where the generic behavior is normal spirals and target patterns with outward-moving waves.