Bifurcations in a birhythmic biological system with time-delayed noise

We study the effects of recycled noise on the dynamics of a birhythmic biological system. This noise is generated by the superposition of a primary Gaussian white noise source with a second component (its replicas delayed of time τ). We find that under the influence of this kind of noise, the dynamics of the birhythmic biological system can be well characterized through the concept of stochastic bifurcation, consisting in a qualitative change of the stationary probability distribution. Analytical results are obtained following the quasiharmonic assumption through the Langevin and Fokker–Planck equations. Comparing the analytical and numerical results, we find good agreement when the frequencies of both attractors are equal, while the predictions of the analytic estimates deteriorate when the two frequencies depart. We also find that the increase of noise intensity leads to coherence resonance.