From Excitatory to Inhibitory Connections in Networks of Discrete Electrochemical Oscillators

A network of two coupled electrochemical oscillators is investigated theoretically and experimentally. It is shown that, if the network is controlled potentiostatically with a point reference electrode, the evolution of the system depends both on the uncompensated and solution resistances. As a result, the action of the connections between the two oscillators can be tuned to be either excitatory or inhibitory by changing the relative position of the working, counter, and point reference electrodes. The change of the connection's action induces different in-phase or out-of-phase stable synchronized states. The numerical predictions are qualitatively reproduced experimentally.