Abstract

Cells interact in order to form higher lever structures such as bacteria colonies or cellular tissues. Random Boolean Networks (RBNs) may be considered as a model for isolated cells, is therefore interesting to analyse the relationship between the dynamics of a single RBN and that of a set of interacting networks. We present a model suitable for the aim: a bi-dimensional Cellular Automaton in which each cell is occupied by a RBN. The interaction mechanism among the networks of the automaton is inspired to inter-cellular communication. The state of order of the model can be analysed at the level of either the whole automaton or the single RBN. It is observed that the influence of the interaction strength on the degree of order of the RBNs is not univocal: in some cases order is enlarged, in others disorder is amplified. Three typologies of behaviour are identified, depending on the interaction strength, which seems to be related to the dynamics of the specific RBN in isolation.