Ephaptic coupling and the source–sink effect of cardiac conduction

As a result of the electrotonic effect, under gap junction coupling, a critical number of excited cells is needed to elicit electrical conduction in cardiac tissue, a phenomenon called the source-sink effect. However, it is unclear how ephaptic coupling affects the source-sink effect. To address this issue, we carry out computer simulations to investigate the effects of ephaptic coupling and its interaction with gap junction coupling on conduction triggered by the following types of depolarizati