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We identify and describe the key qualitative rhythmic states in various 3-cell network motifs of a multifunctional central pattern generator (CPG). Such CPGs are neural microcircuits of cells whose synergetic interactions produce multiple states with distinct phase-locked patterns of bursting activity. To study biologically plausible CPG models, we develop a suite of computational tools that reduce the problem of stability and existence of rhythmic patterns in networks to the bifurcation analysis of fixed points and invariant curves of a Poincaré return maps for phase lags between cells. We explore different functional possibilities for motifs involving symmetry breaking and heterogeneity. This is achieved by varying coupling properties of the synapses between the cells and studying the qualitative changes in the structure of the corresponding return maps. Our findings provide a systematic basis for understanding plausible biophysical mechanisms for the regulation of rhythmic patterns generated by various CPGs in the context of motor control such as gait-switching in locomotion. Our analysis does not require knowledge of the equations modeling the system and provides a powerful qualitative approach to studying detailed models of rhythmic behavior. Thus, our approach is applicable to a wide range of biological phenomena beyond motor control.

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We employed Poincaré return mappings for a parameter interval to an exemplary elliptic bursting model, the FitzHugh-Nagumo-Rinzel model. Using the interval mappings, we were able to examine in detail the bifurcations that underlie the complex activity transitions between: tonic spiking and bursting, bursting and mixed-mode oscillations, and finally, mixed-mode oscillations and quiescence in the FitzHugh-Nagumo-Rinzel model. We illustrate the wealth of information, qualitative and quantitative, that was derived from the Poincaré mappings, for the neuronal models and for similar (electro) chemical systems.

New computational technique based on the symbolic description utilizing kneading invariants is used for explorations of parametric chaos in a two exemplary systems with the Lorenz attractor: a normal model from mathematics, and a laser model from nonlinear optics. The technique allows for uncovering the stunning complexity and universality of the patterns discovered in the bi-parametric scans of the given models and detects their organizing centers -- codimension-two T-points and separating saddles.Comment: International Conference on Theory and Application in Nonlinear Dynamics (ICAND 2012