Educational software for the learning of electrical activation in the heart: A simple cellular automaton model

This paper aims to present a bio-computational model that simulates the electrical activation in the heart, mainly designed for people who study or work in the fields of biology, health sciences or medicine with no previous background in programming. The model has been created on a MATLAB environment using the principles of cellular automaton discrete models and Greenberg-Hastings proposal. It visualises the energy propagation on a normal and on a malfunctioning heart tissue during its disturbances. As a result, a computationally inexpensive model has been developed which incorporates various types of cell neighbourhood patterns. In conclusion, the integration of this multi-disciplinary model at the universities could be a very beneficial addition to medical, biological and health education.