Block-sequential update schedules and Boolean automata circuits

Our work is set in the framework of complex dynamical systems and, more precisely, that of Boolean automata networks modeling regulation networks. We study how the choice of an update schedule impacts on the dynamics of such a network. To do this, we explain how studying the dynamics of any network updated with an arbitrary blocksequential update schedule can be reduced to the study of the dynamics of a different network updated in parallel. We give special attention to networks whose underlying structure is a circuit, that is, Boolean automata circuits. These particular and simple networks are known to serve as the “engines” of the dynamics of arbitrary regulation networks containing them as sub-networks in that they are responsible for their variety of dynamical behaviours. We give both the number of attractors of period p, ∀p ∈ N and the total number of attractors in the dynamics of Boolean automata circuits updated with any block-sequential update schedule. We also detail the variety of dynamical behaviours that such networks may exhibit according to the update schedule.