Resetting and annihilating reentrant waves in a ring of cardiac tissue: Theory and experiment

Theory predicts that a stimulus delivered to an excitation wave circulating on a ring of excitable media will either have no effect, or it will reset or annihilate the excitation depending on the phase and magnitude of the st imulus. We summarize the basis for these theoretical predictions and demons trate these phenomena in an experimental system consisting of a tissue cult ure of embryonic chick heart cells cultured in the shape of a ring.