Oscillon formation as an initial pattern state.
Following Venkataramani and Ott [Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 3495 (1998)], we consider oscillons (local excitations) as spatiotemporal subcritical bifurcation phenomena. We show in a series of numerical experiments that the appearance of oscillons is highly dependent on the initial pattern state. This finding has led to a new patterning mechanism. In this Brief Report we describe the instabilities that govern the mutual interaction of oscillons/extended patterns.