Chaos in the Beeler-Reuter system for the action potential of ventricular myocardial fibres (Q1068748)

The response of the membrane of mammalian ventricular myocardial fibres, described by the Beeler-Reuter differential equations system [\textit{G. W. Beeler} and \textit{H. Reuter}, J. Physiol. 268, 177-210 (1977)], is investigated in the case where the system is subjected to sinusoidal stimulation. For some stimulation frequencies the system exhibits periodic behaviour, frequency locked to the driving cycle. For other values of the stimulation frequency we find chaotic responses clearly distinguished by broad band power spectra. The Lyapunov exponents are computed for this case from which the fractal dimension of the corresponding strange attractor can be estimated.