The nature of bursting noises, stochastic resonance and deterministic chaos in excitable neurons

We study the Hindmarsh-Rose model of excitable neurons and show that in the asymptotic limit this monostable model can possess some kind of dynamical bistability: small-amplitude quasiharmonic and large-amplitude relaxational oscillations can be simultaneously excited and their formation is accompanied by a narrow hysteresis. We show that bursting noises, stochastic resonance and deterministic chaos are determined by random transitions between these two dynamical states under slow and small changes of one of the model variables (z). We find that these effects take place even for such model parameters when hysteresis transforms into a step and they disappear when this step is smoothed out enough. We analyze some characteristics and conditions of formation of the deterministic chaos. We emphasize that such dynamical bistability and the effects related to it are universal phenomena and occur in a wide class of dynamical systems of different nature including brusselator. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.