Numerical simulation of stochastic PDEs for excitable media

We discuss the numerical solution of a number of stochastic perturbations of the Barkley model of excitable media, widely used in the study of spiral waves. Two numerical methods are considered for solving this equation, one based on Barkley's original formulation and one based on spectral methods. It is found to be beneficial to modify the nonlinearity describing the reaction kinetics. An efficient method of approximating the Wiener process is presented. The effectiveness of the methods depends on the stochastic PDE under consideration.