Mini-Symposium Topic: Mathematicas in Biology and Medicine

Organizer: Anna Lawniczak (University of Guelph)

Delayed Regulation in a Hormonal System

Jacques Belair

Universite de Montreal

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Complex fluctuations are observed in many physiological systems, such as the beat to beat variability of the heart rate, variations in the sleep-wake cycle,and pulsatile secretion of hormones. I present an example of the modeling of such a system, in which the fluctuations are interpreted as oscillations induced by bifurcations due to changes in the parameters regulating the governing equations: it is a representation, at the systemic level, of the regulation of glucose and insulin. Linear and nonlinear (using centre manifold and normal forms) stability analysis of a system of delay-differential equation is performed.


Saturday, 3:30 p.m. - 3:50 p.m. Room 2270