Spiral waves in excitable media with negative restitution.

We study numerically the dynamics of spiral waves in an excitable medium with negative restitution. For our study we use two models of the excitable medium: a cellular automaton and a reaction-diffusion model. There are no significant effects of negative restitution as long as the slope of the restitution curve is less steep than -1. In media with slopes steeper than -1, the dynamics of spiral waves can change significantly: (1) the average restitution time jumps to a value where the slope of the restitution curve is about -1; (2) spiral waves can break up into turbulent patterns. We discuss a possible connection between such instabilities and fibrillation in atrial tissue.