Pattern formation in oscillatory media without lateral inhibition

Abstract

Spontaneous symmetry breaking instabilities are the most common mechanism for how biological, chemical, and physical systems produce spatial patterns. Beginning with Turing's original paper, so-called lateral inhibition-in which negative feedback has greater spread than positive feedback-has been the underlying mechanism for pattern formation in biological models. Despite this, there are many biological systems that exhibit pattern formation but do not have lateral inhibition. In this paper, we present an example of such a system that is able to generate robust patterns emerging from a spatially homogeneous state. In fact, patterns can arise when there is only spatial spread of the activator. Unlike classic Turing pattern formation, these patterns arise from a spatially homogeneous oscillation rather than from a constant steady state.