Using a stochastic nonlinear phase oscillator model, we study the effect of event-triggered feedback on the statistics of interevent intervals. Events are associated with the entering of a new cycle. The feedback is modeled by an instantaneous increase (positive feedback) or decrease (negative feedback) of the oscillator frequency whenever an event occurs followed by an exponential decay on a slow time scale. In addition to the known excitable and oscillatory regimes, which are separated by a saddle node on invariant circle bifurcation, positive feedback can lead to bistable dynamics and a change of the system's excitability. The feedback has also a strong effect on noise-induced phenomena like coherence resonance or anticoherence resonance. Both positive and negative feedback can lead to more regular output for particular noise strengths. Finally, we investigate serial correlations in the sequence of interevent intervals that occur due to the additional slow dynamics. We derive approximations for the serial correlation coefficient and show that positive feedback results in extended positive interval correlations, whereas negative feedback yields short-ranging negative correlations. Investigating the interplay of feedback and the nonlinear phase dynamics close to the bifurcation, we find that correlations are most pronounced for optimal feedback strengths.

• Received 5 November 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.89.032138