Closed-loop neurostimulation in real-time for the treatment of pathological brain rhythms

Mental disorders may exhibit pathological brain rhythms and neurostimulation promises to alleviate of patients' symptoms by modifying these rhythms. Today, most neurostimulation schemes are open-loop, i.e. administer experimental stimulation protocols independent of the patients brain activity which may yield a sub-optimal treatment. We propose a closed-loop feedback control scheme estimating an optimal stimulation based on observed brain activity. The optimal stimulation is chosen according to a user-defined target frequency distribution, which permits frequency tuning of the brain activity in real-time. The mathematical description details the major control elements and applications to biologically realistic simulated brain activity illustrate the scheme's possible power in medical practice. Clinical relevance - The proposed neurostimulation control theme promises to permit the medical personnel to tune a patient's brain activity in real-time.