Parametric stability in a cellular oscillator

Abstract

A comprehensive neuromime realized in CMOS VLSI circuitry was used to reconstruct and parametrically test the cellular oscillator that gives rise to swimming motion in hirudo, the medicinal leech. Each subunit of the leech swim network consists of a number of embedded cyclic and reciprocal sub-oscillators. Tests on the two sub-oscillator types indicate that the cellular and environmental parameters to which they are most immune complement one another. Tests on an entire subunit of the leech network show that the overall stability of the network is attributable to the product of the stability of its sub-oscillators.