Parameter estimation in a whole-brain network model of epilepsy: Comparison of parallel global optimization solvers

The Virtual Epileptic Patient (VEP) refers to a computer-based representation of a patient with epilepsy that combines personalized anatomical data with dynamical models of abnormal brain activities. It is capable of generating spatio-temporal seizure patterns that resemble those recorded with invasive methods such as stereoelectro EEG data, allowing for the evaluation of clinical hypotheses before planning surgery. This study highlights the effectiveness of calibrating VEP models using a global optimization approach. The approach utilizes SaCeSS, a cooperative metaheuristic algorithm capable of parallel computation, to yield high-quality solutions without requiring excessive computational time. Through extensive benchmarking on synthetic data, our proposal successfully solved a set of different configurations of VEP models, demonstrating better scalability and superior performance against other parallel solvers. These results were further enhanced using a Bayesian optimization framework for hyperparameter tuning, with significant gains in terms of both accuracy and computational cost. Additionally, we added a scalable uncertainty quantification phase after model calibration, and used it to assess the variability in estimated parameters across different problems. Overall, this study has the potential to improve the estimation of pathological brain areas in drug-resistant epilepsy, thereby to inform the clinical decision-making process.