Academic network as excitable medium

The paper simulated the spread of certain ideas in a professional virtual group. We consider the propagation of excitation in an inhomogeneous excitable medium of high connectivity. It is assumed that the network elements form a complete graph. Parameters of the elements are normally distributed. The simulation showed that interest in the idea can fade or fluctuate depending on the settings in the virtual group. The presenceof a permanent excited element with relatively high activity leads to chaos - the fraction of members of the community actively interested in an idea varies irregularly.