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Atrial Fibrillation Rotor 2D: Barkley Excitable-Medium Model

2D top-down reaction-diffusion simulator of an atrial-tissue rotor: run the S1-S2 stimulation protocol on a Barkley excitable medium (an independent two-variable model from the companion 3D Mitchell-Schaeffer sim) and watch a unidirectional block spin up a self-sustaining spiral wave.

Medicine & Biophysics2DAdvanced60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 3D version

This top-down 2D companion to the 3D cardiac-rotor simulator swaps the Mitchell–Schaeffer ionic model for the Barkley excitable-medium equations — an independent, widely used two-variable reaction-diffusion system from nonlinear dynamics that reproduces the same spiral-wave (rotor) physics seen in real atrial tissue. Fire a planar S1 beat, then a timed S2 premature beat into part of its still-refractory wake to trigger a unidirectional conduction block, the textbook mechanism that spins up a self-sustaining spiral. Tune conduction velocity, excitability threshold and fibrosis density to see, live, why shortened refractoriness and diffuse fibrosis make reentrant arrhythmias easier to start and harder to stop — verified numerically here to keep a genuine rotor spinning long after an isolated beat would have died out at the tissue boundary.

⚙ Under the hood

A 2D top-down companion to the 3D cardiac-rotor simulator: an independently implemented Barkley excitable-medium model (distinct from the 3D sim's Mitchell-Schaeffer ionic model) runs the classic S1-S2 stimulation protocol on a sheet of atrial tissue, spinning up a self-sustaining reentrant rotor whose conduction velocity, excitability threshold and fibrosis density are all tunable live.

cardiologyelectrophysiologyreaction-diffusionarrhythmiabiomedicineexcitable mediaspiral wave

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install