ANDINO: Automata network model for the diffusion of nitric oxide in biological and artificial neural systems. A preliminary study

An underlying mechanism of Volume Transmission (VT) is the diffusion of Nitric Oxide (NO), which affects all types of brain activity. In this paper we present a new discrete Model based on Automata Networks for Diffusion of NO (ANDINO). The main objectives are to demonstrate its ability to observe the dynamics of diffusion of NO from a molecular perspective and to study how the establishment of local diffusion rules produces global phenomena in which complex structures of NO molecules are generated,( following specified movement dynamics). We show that ANDINO is a highly powerful and general formal tool for studying and determining the dynamic of NO diffusion, both in brain and artificial neural systems. We present a short (and preliminary) computational analysis of the dynamics of NO diffusion and the self-regulation process using a two-dimensional AN made up of 420 automata with a hexagonal connection scheme working in a homogeneous and isotropic environment. Finally we demonstrate the ability of ANDINO to analyze the relationship among the different processes involved in the global dynamics of NO, such as diffusion, self-regulation/recombination and Synthesis.