Summarized from: https://phys.org/news/2025-10-chorus-synchronized-frequencies-digest-food.html

  1. Biological systems often exhibit synchronization, like fireflies or fish, but the mechanics are complex, as seen in brain blood vessels.
  2. UC San Diego researchers studied the gut’s peristalsis to understand how oscillations synchronize, finding a “staircase effect” where similar frequencies lock onto each other.
  3. This research used a classical model of coupled oscillators, simplified by the gut’s unidirectional nature compared to the brain’s complex vasculature.
  4. The new mathematical solution explains how food moves and is churned in the digestive tract and could aid in understanding gastrointestinal motility disorders.
  5. The study determined key features of the staircase phenomenon in the gut, which had not been precisely understood before.
  6. The researchers plan to apply these findings back to the more complex, multi-directional oscillations observed in the brain’s vasculature.