We present first numerical evidence that in an excitable medium the synchronization of spatiotemporal patterns with external excitatory waves shows a sharp peak at a finite, well-defined noise level independent of the system size. This effect can be understood as a generalization of the concept of stochastic resonance to spatially extended systems. We further show the impact of spatiotemporal stochastic resonance for the spreading of spiral waves, where the noise level controls the scale and size of the spiral.

• Received 20 September 1994

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.74.2130