Bistability between a chaotic bursting state and a depolarized steady state in a mathematical model of snail RPa1 neurons

This study presents a novel form of bistability in a mathematical model of snail RPa1 neurons. This model was previously reported as a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations simulating the membrane potential oscillations of snail RPa1 neurons. Here, we perform a numerical simulation revealing that whether the model shows a chaotic bursting state or a depolarized steady state is dependent on the initial condition. Notably, a certain transient current pulse can change the dynamical state of the model from a chaotic bursting state to a depolarized steady state, or vice versa. Taken together, these results indicate that the snail RPa1 neuron model can show bistability between chaotic bursting and depolarized steady states.