Fig. 12

Development of SD and model-based control. SD based on a two-variable reaction-diffusion mechanism engulfs all the densely packed excitable neurons in the cortex (top row). The activator concentration is in red, the inhibitor in yellow in this schematic illustration. Long-range inhibitory feedback (green) is a well-established pattern formation mechanism to confine the spread (bottom row). The predicted emerging transient patterns offer a model-based analysis of phase-depended stimulation protocols. In the classical paradigm, applying noninvasive neuromodulation devices, which may succeed to block SD locally (c), would result in a reentrant pattern (d). In the new paradigm of localized SD waves that we suggest, a phase-dependent stimulation protocol might target intelligently with noise the bottle-neck passage (g) (see main text), while a different protocol might be considered during the initial nucleation phase (e)