Pseudovortices Aid in Modeling the Synchronization Behavior of Neurons

T icking clocks and flashing fireflies that start out of sync will fall into sync, a tendency that has been observed for centuries. A discovery two decades ago therefore came as a surprise: the dynamics of identical coupled oscillators can also be asynchronous. The ability to fall in and out of sync, a behavior dubbed a chimera state, is generic to identical coupled oscillators and requires only that the coupling is nonlocal. Now Yasuhiro Yamada and Kensuke Inaba of NTT Basic Research Laboratories in Japan show that this behavior can be analyzed using a lattice model (the XY model) developed to understand antiferromagnetism [1]. Besides a pleasing correspondence, Yamada and Inaba say that their finding offers a path to study the partial synchronization of neurons that underlie brain function and dysfunction.