Research Article
Catastrophe and Hysteresis by the Emerging of Soliton-Like
Solutions in a Nerve Model
Fernando Ongay Larios,
1
Nikolay P. Tretyakov,
2
and Maximo A. Agüero
1
1
Faculty of Sciences, Autonomous University of the State of Mexico, 50000 Toluca, Mexico
2
Department of Applied Mathematics, Russian State Social University, Moscow 129226, Russia
Correspondence should be addressed to Fernando Ongay Larios; fernando ongay@yahoo.com.mx
Received 15 June 2014; Revised 6 September 2014; Accepted 13 September 2014; Published 7 October 2014
Academic Editor: Mitsuhiro Ohta
Copyright © 2014 Fernando Ongay Larios et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.
e nonlinear problem of traveling nerve pulses showing the unexpected process of hysteresis and catastrophe is studied. e
analysis was done for the case of one-dimensional nerve pulse propagation. Of particular interest is the distinctive tendency of the
pulse nerve model to conserve its behavior in the absence of the stimulus that generated it. e hysteresis and catastrophe appear
in certain parametric region determined by the evolution of bubble and pedestal like solitons. By reformulating the governing
equations with a standard boundary conditions method, we derive a system of nonlinear algebraic equations for critical points.
Our approach provides opportunities to explore the nonlinear features of wave patterns with hysteresis.
1. Introduction
As is well known, one of the fundamental problems in physics
applied to natural biological processes is to investigate the
ways the nature transports information and energy between
two or more points of living organism. On nerve fibers, for
example, there exist several mathematical descriptions. e
remarkable one was done by Hodgkin and Huxley (HH)
in the 50s [1]. By using this model it has been established
that the dynamic of ionic currents through voltage channels
is responsible for the change of the membrane potential
in nerve tissues. at means the membrane contains pro-
teins with specific behaviors of selectivity with respect to
the conduction of sodium and potassium ions though the
membrane. Later, Hodgkin and Huxley system was developed
independently by many authors and specifically the work
of Fitzhugh and Nagumo [2, 3] suggested, as analogous
neuronal, a nonlinear electrical circuit, controlled by an
equation system also similar to those of Van Der Pol currents.
Further the model was extended by modeling the nerve pulse
as collective excitations from the point of view of dynamical
systems; see, for example, [4].
Aſter this successful beginning several other works con-
cerning specifically soliton-like structures in the HH model
have been done. Indeed, for example, Katz in [5] proposed
the existence of traveling soliton-like pulse in this model.
Muratov in his paper [6] obtained solitary waves for nerve
pulses with velocities that are in certain agreement with
experimental results. However, some further investigations
lead to observing the dissipation of heat [7] that should have
considerable distort at large distance and time the proper
behavior of nerve cells.
It is suggested to say that, despite those very important
achievements on the HH model, there is still a current
problem concerning the heat releasing during the evolution
of electrical nerve signals along the axons. is problem could
be discarded if nature could choose the way for transmitting
information and energy as evolving processes with or without
little amount of heat liberation, that is, like an adiabatic proc-
ess.
On the other hand, there are relevant works which report
unusual behavior of soliton emergency due to hysteric proc-
esses. For example, Wu and coworkers [8] report the experi-
mental observation of the generation of dark solitons inher-
ently hysterical, through self-modulational instability moving
the operating point frequency across a selected dipole gap
in the dipole-exchange spin wave mode dispersion response.
Higher powers lead to further changes in the power frequency
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
Journal of Nonlinear Dynamics
Volume 2014, Article ID 710152, 8 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/710152