Seizure control in a neural mass model by an active disturbance rejection approach

A closed-loop neuromodulation automatically adjusts stimuli according to brain response in real time. It is viewed as a promising way to control medically intractable epilepsy. A suitable closed-loop modulation strategy, which is robust enough to unknown nonlinearities, dynamics, and disturbances, is in great need in the clinic. For the specialization of epilepsy, the Jansen's neural mass model is utilized to simulate the undesired high amplitudes epileptic activities, and active disturbance rejection control is designed to suppress the high amplitudes of epileptiform discharges. With the help of active disturbance rejection control, closed-loop roots of the system are far from the imaginary axis. Time domain response shows that active disturbance rejection control is able to control seizure no matter whether disturbances exist or not. At the same time, frequency domain response presents that enough stability margins and a broader range of tunable controller parameters can be obtained. Stable regions have also been presented to provide guidance to choose the parameters of active disturbance rejection control. Numerical results show that, compared with proportional-integral control, more accurate modulation with less energy can be achieved by active disturbance rejection control. It confirms that the active disturbance rejection control-based neuromodulation solution is able to achieve a desired performance. It is a promising closed-loop neuromodulation strategy in seizure control.