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Updated: Jun 11, 2026

Contribution of the Na+/K+ Pump to Rhythmic Bursting, Explored with Modeling and Dynamic Clamp Analyses
Published on: May 9, 2021
Mechanism, dynamics, and biological existence of multistability in a large class of bursting neurons
Jonathan P Newman1, Robert J Butera
1Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0535, USA. jnewman6@gatech.edu
Abstract:
Multistability, the coexistence of multiple attractors in a dynamical system, is explored in bursting nerve cells. A modeling study is performed to show that a large class of bursting systems, as defined by a shared topology when represented as dynamical systems, is inherently suited to support multistability. We derive the bifurcation structure and parametric trends leading to multistability in these systems. Evidence for the existence of multirhythmic behavior in neurons of the aquatic mollusc Aplysia californica that is consistent with our proposed mechanism is presented. Although these experimental results are preliminary, they indicate that single neurons may be capable of dynamically storing information for longer time scales than typically attributed to nonsynaptic mechanisms.
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