A minimally invasive neurostimulation method for controlling abnormal synchronisation in the neuronal activity

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Complex Systems
• Control Theory

Background:

• Neural synchronisation is crucial for brain function.
• Aberrant synchronisation, or hypersynchronisation, underlies neurological disorders like epilepsy and Parkinson's disease.
• Current treatments for these conditions have limitations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and validate a minimally invasive control method for desynchronising misfiring brain regions.
• To mitigate or eliminate symptoms associated with hypersynchronisation in neurological diseases.
• To demonstrate the efficacy of Hamiltonian control theory in neural ensembles.

Main Methods:

• Application of Hamiltonian control theory to neuronal ensembles modelled by Kuramoto and Stuart-Landau models.
• Inclusion of heterogeneous coupling among interacting neuronal units.
• Numerical simulations on small-world Newman-Watts and Erdős-Rényi networks.
• Comparison with Proportional-Differential (PD) Feedback control.

Main Results:

• The proposed method effectively desynchronises neural activity.
• Achieves comparable desynchronisation to PD control with reduced control strength and/or fewer controllers.
• Demonstrates minimally invasive control of neural hypersynchronisation.
• Validated across different network topologies (Newman-Watts, Erdős-Rényi).

Conclusions:

• Hamiltonian control offers a powerful and efficient strategy for treating neurological disorders characterized by hypersynchronisation.
• The developed method presents a promising, less invasive alternative to existing therapeutic approaches.
• This work advances the understanding and control of collective phenomena in biological systems.