The New Jersey Institute of Technology's
Electronic Theses & Dissertations Project

Title:	The control of frequency of a conditional oscillator simultaneously subjected to multiple oscillatory inputs
Author:	Ambrosio, Christina L.
View Online:	njit-etd2005-061 (xiii, 134 pages ~ 9.4 MB pdf)
Department:	Department of Mathematical Sciences
Degree:	Doctor of Philosophy
Program:	Mathematical Sciences
Document Type:	Dissertation
Advisory Committee:	Bose, Amitabha Koshal (Committee chair) Nadim, Farzan (Committee member) Miura, Robert M. (Committee member) Stickler, David C. (Committee member) Jonakait, G. Miller (Committee member)
Date:	2005-05
Keywords:	Dynamical systems Poincare map Geometric, singular perturbation theory Conditional oscillator Stomatogastric ganglion
Availability:	Unrestricted
Abstract:	A conditional oscillator is one that requires input to oscillate. An example of such is the gastric mill network of the stomatogastric ganglion of the crab Cancer borealis which requires modulatory input from outside the stomatogastric ganglion and fast input from the pyloric network of the animal in order to become active. This dissertation studies how the frequency of the gastric mill network is determined when it is simultaneously subjected to two different rhythmic inputs whose timing may be mismatched. We derive a mathematical model of the gastric mill network and deduce that the difference in timing between the pyloric and modulatory inputs is crucial in determining what effect it will have on the frequency of the gastric mill network. Over a certain range of the time mismatch, the pyloric input plays no role in determining the network frequency, while in another range of the time mismatch, both inputs work together to determine the frequency. The existence and stability of periodic solutions to the modeling set of equations are obtained analytically using geometric singular perturbation theory and an analytic approximation of the frequency is obtained. The results are validated through numerical simulations of the model and are shown to extend to a detailed Hodgkin-Huxley type compartmental model of the gastric mill network. Comparisons to experiments are also presented.