Phase Response Curves: Overview

Detailed Description

Phase response curves (PRCs, alternatively phase-resetting curves) are a powerful way of characterizing and explaining the behavior of nonlinear oscillators without knowing anything about their specific internal dynamics. The phase response curve represents the shortening or lengthening of the cycle period caused by an input depending upon at what point (phase) within the cycle an input is received. In contrast, for a linear time invariant system, the effect of an input is independent of when it is applied. No matter whether the oscillations represent the flashing of fireflies, a pendulum-based clock, a cardiac cell, or a neural oscillator, the phase response curve predicts the phasic relationship of the oscillator to periodic forcing or to coupling within a network of other oscillators. Each oscillator can be reduced to a phase oscillator whose angular velocity on a circle is constant, except when it receives an input that resets (advances or delays) its phase on...