A New Neural Mass Model Driven Method and Its Application in Early Epileptic Seizure Detection

Mechanisms underlying EEG power changes during wakefulness in insomnia patients: a model-driven study

Insomnia, as a common sleep disorder, is the most common complaints in medical practice affecting a large proportion of the population on a situational, recurrent or chronic basis. It has been demonstrated that, during wakefulness, patients with insomnia exhibit increased EEG power in theta, beta, and gamma band. However, the relevant mechanisms underlying such power changes are still lack of understanding. In this paper, by combining the neural computational model with the real EEG data, we focus on exploring what's behind the EEG power changes for insomniac. We first develop a modified Liley model, named FSR-Liley, by respectively considering the fast and slow synaptic responses in inhibitory neurons along with the one-way projection between them. Then we introduce a parameter selection and evaluation method based on Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm and Wasserstein distance, by which the sensitive parameters are selected automatically, and meanwhile, the optimal values of selected parameters are evaluated. Finally, through combining with EEG data, we determine the sensitive parameters in FSR-Liley and accordingly provide the mechanistic hypotheses: (1) decrease in P e i f , corresponding to the input from the thalamus to cortical inhibitory population with fast synaptic response, leads to the increased theta and beta power; (2) decrease in N e i f , corresponding to the projection from cortical excitatory population to inhibitory population with fast synaptic response, causes the increased gamma power. The results in this paper provide insights into the mechanisms of EEG power changes in insomnia and establish a theoretical foundation to support further experimental research.

Closed-Loop Implantable Neurostimulators for Individualized Treatment of Intractable Epilepsy: A Review of Recent Developments, Ongoing Challenges, and Future Opportunities

Driven by its proven therapeutic efficacy in treating movement disorders and psychiatric conditions, neurostimulation has emerged as a promising intervention for intractable epilepsy. Researchers envision an advanced implantable device capable of long-term neuronal monitoring, high spatio-temporal resolution data processing, and timely responsive neurostimulation upon seizure detection. However, the stringent energy constraints of implantable devices and significant inter-patient variability in neural activity pose substantial challenges and opportunities for biomedical circuits and systems researchers. For seizure detection, various ASIC solutions employing both deterministic and data-driven algorithms have been developed. These solutions leverage a subset of numerous signal features (spanning time and frequency domains) and classifiers (such as SVMs, DNNs, SNNs) to achieve notable success in terms of detection accuracy, latency, and energy efficiency. Implementations vary widely in computational approaches (digital, mixed-signal, analog, spike-based), training strategies (online versus offline), and application targets (patient-specific versus cross-patient). In terms of treatment, recent efforts have focused on the personalization of stimulation waveforms to enhance therapeutic efficacy. This personalization faces complex challenges, including a limited understanding of how stimulation parameters influence neuronal activity, the lack of a comprehensive brain model to capture its intricate electrochemical dynamics, and recording neural signals in the presence of stimulation artifacts. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the field, detailing the foundational principles, recent advancements, and ongoing challenges in enhancing the diagnostic accuracy, treatment efficacy, and energy efficiency of implantable patient-optimized neurostimulators. We also discuss potential future directions, emphasizing the need for standardized performance metrics, advanced computational models, and adaptive stimulation protocols to realize the full potential of this transformative technology.

Improved control effect of pathological oscillations by using delayed feedback stimulation in neural mass model with pedunculopontine nucleus

BACKGROUND

The role of delayed feedback stimulation in the discussion of Parkinson's disease (PD) has recently received increasing attention. Stimulation of pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN) is an emerging treatment for PD. However, the effect of PPN in regulating PD is ignored, and the delayed feedback stimulation algorithm is facing some problems in parameter selection.

METHODS

On the basis of a neural mass model, we established a new network for PPN. Four types of delayed feedback stimulation schemes were designed, such as stimulating subthalamic nucleus (STN) with the local field potentials (LFPs) of STN nucleus, globus pallidus (GPe) with the LFPs of Gpe nucleus, PPN with the LFPs of Gpe nucleus, and STN with the LFPs of PPN nucleus.

RESULTS

In this study, we found that all four kinds of delayed feedback schemes are effective, suggesting that the algorithm is simple and more effective in experiments. More specifically, the other three control schemes improved the control performance and reduced the stimulation energy expenditure compared with traditional stimulating STN itself only.

CONCLUSION

PPN stimulation can affect the new network and help to suppress pathological oscillations for each neuron. We hope that our results can gain an insight into the future clinical treatment.

Computational modeling allows unsupervised classification of epileptic brain states across species

Current advances in epilepsy treatment aim to personalize and responsively adjust treatment parameters to overcome patient heterogeneity in treatment efficiency. For tailoring treatment to the individual and the current brain state, tools are required that help to identify the patient- and time-point-specific parameters of epilepsy. Computational modeling has long proven its utility in gaining mechanistic insight. Recently, the technique has been introduced as a diagnostic tool to predict individual treatment outcomes. In this article, the Wendling model, an established computational model of epilepsy dynamics, is used to automatically classify epileptic brain states in intracranial EEG from patients (n = 4) and local field potential recordings from in vitro rat data (high-potassium model of epilepsy, n = 3). Five-second signal segments are classified to four types of brain state in epilepsy (interictal, preonset, onset, ictal) by comparing a vector of signal features for each data segment to four prototypical feature vectors obtained by Wendling model simulations. The classification result is validated against expert visual assessment. Model-driven brain state classification achieved a classification performance significantly above chance level (mean sensitivity 0.99 on model data, 0.77 on rat data, 0.56 on human data in a four-way classification task). Model-driven prototypes showed similarity with data-driven prototypes, which we obtained from real data for rats and humans. Our results indicate similar electrophysiological patterns of epileptic states in the human brain and the animal model that are well-reproduced by the computational model, and captured by a key set of signal features, enabling fully automated and unsupervised brain state classification in epilepsy.