Transient localized wave patterns and their application to migraine.

Transient dynamics is pervasive in the human brain and poses challenging problems both in mathematical tractability and clinical observability. We investigate statistical properties of transient cortical wave patterns with characteristic forms (shape, size, duration) in a canonical reaction-diffusion model with mean field inhibition. The patterns are formed by ghost behavior near a saddle-node bifurcation in which a stable traveling wave (node) collides with its critical nucleation mass (saddle).