Related papers: Spontaneous generation of persistent activity in d…

The spontaneous emergence of contraction-inducing electrical activity in the uterus at the beginning of labor remains poorly understood, partly due to the seemingly contradictory observation that isolated uterine cells are not spontaneously…

Coherent oscillatory activity can arise spontaneously as a result of increased coupling in a system of excitable and passive cells, each being quiescent in isolation. This can potentially explain the appearance of spontaneous rhythmic…

Collective oscillation of cells in a population has been reported under diverse biological contexts and with vastly different molecular constructs. Could there be common principles similar to those that govern spontaneous oscillation in…

Oscillations represent a ubiquitous phenomenon in biological systems. The conventional models of biological periodic oscillations are usually proposed as interconnecting transcriptional feedback loops. Some specific proteins function as…

Self-organization phenomena in ensembles of self-propelled particles open pathways to the synthesis of new dynamic states not accessible by traditional equilibrium processes. The challenge is to develop a set of principles that facilitate…

We propose a novel mechanism leading to spatiotemporal oscillations in extended systems that does not rely on local bulk instabilities. Instead, oscillations arise from the interaction of two subsystems of different spatial dimensionality.…

Equilibrium self-assembly and conventional materials processing techniques fall far short of mimicking dynamic self-actuating processes that are commonplace throughout biology. To bridge the gap between living and synthetic matter, we study…

Cellular self-assembly and organization are fundamental steps for the development of biological tissues. In this paper, within the framework of a cellular automata model, we address how an ordered tissue pattern spontaneously emerges from a…

With exquisite precision and reproducibility, cells orchestrate the cooperative action of thousands of nanometer-sized molecular motors to carry out mechanical tasks at much larger length scales, such as cell motility, division and…

Recent experiments have highlighted how collective dynamics in networks of brain regions affect behavior and cognitive function. In this paper we show that a simple, homogeneous system of densely connected oscillators representing the…

Inhibitory neurons play a crucial role in maintaining persistent neuronal activity. Although connected extensively through electrical synapses (gap-junctions), these neurons also exhibit interactions through chemical synapses in certain…

Many natural systems including the brain comprise coupled non-uniformly stimulated elements. In this paper we show that heterogeneously driven networks of excitatory-inhibitory units exhibit striking collective phenomena, including…

Through extensive studies of dynamical system modeling cellular growth and reproduction, we find evidence that complexity arises in multicellular organisms naturally through evolution. Without any elaborate control mechanism, these systems…

Active phenomena which involve force generation and motion play a key role in a number of phenomena in living cells such as cell motility, muscle contraction and the active transport of material and organelles. Here we discuss mechanical…

Collective motion is a phenomenon observed across length scales in nature, from bacterial swarming and tissue migration to the flocking of animals. The mechanisms underlying this behavior vary significantly depending on the biological…

Collective cell migration lies at the intersection of developmental biology and non-equilibrium physics, where active processes give rise to emergent patterns that are biologically relevant. Here, we investigate dilatational modes--cycles…

Active solids consist of elastically coupled out-of-equilibrium units performing work. They are central to autonomous processes, such as locomotion, self-oscillations and rectification, in biological systems,designer materials and robotics.…

Sustained rhythmic oscillations, pulsing dynamics, emerge spontaneously when the local connection scheme is randomised in 3-value cellular automata that feature"glider" dynamics. Time-plots of pulsing measures maintain a distinct waveform…

Random networks of symmetrically coupled, excitable elements can self-organize into coherently oscillating states if the networks contain loops (indeed loops are abundant in random networks) and if the initial conditions are sufficiently…

Complex interactions between cellular systems and their surrounding extracellular matrices are emerging as important mechanical regulators of cell functions such as proliferation, motility, and cell death, and such cellular systems are…