How noise can generate calcium spike-type oscillations in deterministic equilibrium modes

Stochastic excitability of spiking oscillatory regimes in the calcium kinetics is studied on the basis of the Li-Rinzel conceptual model. The probabilistic mechanisms of the noise-induced generation of large-amplitude oscillations in parametric zones, where the original deterministic model has only stable equilibria, are investigated numerically and analytically. A parametric statistical description of interspike intervals is curried out and the phenomenon of coherence resonance is discussed. For the analytical study of the stochastic excitement, the confidence domain method using a stochastic sensitivity technique is applied. In this analysis, a key role of mutual arrangement of the confidence ellipses and separatrices detaching the sub- and supercritical regions is demonstrated. It is shown that in the Li-Rinzel model such separatrices are the stable manifolds of the saddle equilibria and the transient semiattractors.