EVENT DETAILS AND ABSTRACT

Title: Unsolved Problems of the Heart
Speaker: Professor A. Winfree
Speaker Info: U. Arizona
Brief Description:
Special Note: Note unusual day
Abstract:

The electrical behavior of heart muscle is normally periodic, but can go turbulent. This change of dynamical mode does not require a change of parameters: it is an alternative basin of attraction. The difference stems from there being two kinds of "action potential": the linearly propagating pulse of the text books, and alternative vortex-like solutions. The latter, called "rotors" have many curious properties, especially in 3 dimensions. They are better understood by computation than by analysis or by in-vivo experiments, at the moment. But experiments do confirm their existence and crucial role in starting "sudden cardiac death.