Berlin 2008 – scientific programme

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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 17: Poster I

DY 17.42: Poster

Tuesday, February 26, 2008, 16:00–18:00, Poster C

Migraine symptoms modeled as transient particle-like waves — Markus A. Dahlem, •M. Hannelore Frank, Gerald Hiller, and Eckehard Schöll — Institut f. Theor. Physik, Sekr. EW 7-1, Technische Universität Berlin, Hardenbergstr. 36, 10623 Berlin, Germany

In two-dimensional reaction-diffusion systems, the evolution of waves depends on their form (length and shape). For each set of parameters a specific particle-like wave form exists. When this form is perturbed the momentarily excited area either grows or dies after a transient time. This defines a size limit for excitation spread of particular wave shapes. We show that close to this limit the reaction-diffusion model can be used to describe spatio-temporal patterns of pathological activity during migraine. Patients’ symptom reports suggest that pathological activity breaks away from one side of a pathological core and vanishes after it has spread a certain distance. We model this by wave propagation initiated from a circular core region with a cut out wedge. We perform numerical simulations of transient waves breaking away from the core and match their evolution with data of affected cortical tissue obtained from the patients’ symptom reports. In the model, we observe curvature effects arising due to the fact that the initial shape of the wave segments is higher curved than the natural form of particle-like waves. We investigate under what circumstances cortical geometry can cause a curvature-induced transition to non-excitable dynamics explaining not only the confined spread but also the partial excitation block at the opposite side of the pathological core.