Firing rates of coupled noisy excitable elements

The dynamics of coupled excitable FitzHugh-Nagumo systems under external noisy driving is studied. Different from most of previous work focusing on the noise-induced regularity in the framework of coherence resonance, here the average frequency (or firing rate) of coupled excitable elements is of much more concern. We find that (i) their frequencies first increase and then decrease with the increase of the coupling, and there is a clear crossover from a rush increase to a smooth increase with the increase of noise strength, and (ii) for nonidentical cases, all elements transit to an identical frequency simultaneously only after a certain coupling strength is achieved. These first-increase-then-decrease non-monotonic frequency behavior and isochronous frequency synchronization are believed to be two basic behaviors in coupled noisy excitable systems.