Waves on the tongue*

Geographic tongue (GT) is a benign condition of unknown cause, characterized by spatio-temporal chronic lesions on the surface of the human tongue. The condition's appearance with propagating wave fronts of various forms can be modeled with two coupled, nonlinear reaction-diffusion (RD) equations. Here we present a realistic model, using the curvature dependent speed of RD waves, to explain the temporal evolution of GT patterns. We also compare our simulations with experimental time-series.