Noise-Induced Bursting and Coherence Resonance in Minimal Cytosolic Ca2+ Oscillation Model

A stochastic calcium oscillation model based on the minimal calcium oscillation model is investigated by numerical computation. When the extracellular stimulation is sub-threshold and random, the oscillations of cytosolic calcium show complex behaviour: a bursting-like phenomenon induced by noise, that is, the phase of glomerate spikes are separated by phase of quiescence (but fluctuations in the baseline values of calcium with small amplitude during the silent phase), in a pattern that occurs at irregular intervals. By using the histogram of interspike intervals of calcium concentration spikes, it is found that the noise-induced coherence resonance phenomenon occurs at the cellular level.