Self-organized pacemakers in a coupled reaction-diffusion-mechanics system.

Using a computational model of a coupled reaction-diffusion-mechanics system, we find that mechanical deformation can induce automatic pacemaking activity. Pacemaking is shown to occur after a single electrical or mechanical stimulus in an otherwise nonoscillatory medium. We study the mechanisms underpinning this effect and conditions for its existence. We show that self-organized pacemakers drift throughout the medium to approach attractors with locations that depend on the size of the medium, and on the location of the initial stimulus.