Distributed brain co-processor for tracking spikes, seizures and behaviour during electrical brain stimulation.
Scientific Abstract
Early implantable epilepsy therapy devices provided open-loop electrical stimulation without brain sensing, computing, or an interface for synchronized behavioural inputs from patients. Recent epilepsy stimulation devices provide brain sensing but have not yet developed analytics for accurately tracking and quantifying behaviour and seizures. Here we describe a distributed brain co-processor providing an intuitive bi-directional interface between patient, implanted neural stimulation and sensing device, and local and distributed computing resources. Automated analysis of continuous streaming electrophysiology is synchronized with patient reports using a handheld device and integrated with distributed cloud computing resources for quantifying seizures, interictal epileptiform spikes and patient symptoms during therapeutic electrical brain stimulation. The classification algorithms for interictal epileptiform spikes and seizures were developed and parameterized using long-term ambulatory data from nine humans and eight canines with epilepsy, and then implemented prospectively in out-of-sample testing in two pet canines and four humans with drug-resistant epilepsy living in their natural environments. Accurate seizure diaries are needed as the primary clinical outcome measure of epilepsy therapy and to guide brain-stimulation optimization. The brain co-processor system described here enables tracking interictal epileptiform spikes, seizures and correlation with patient behavioural reports. In the future, correlation of spikes and seizures with behaviour will allow more detailed investigation of the clinical impact of spikes and seizures on patients.
Similar content
Preprint
Flexible and Stable Cycle-by-Cycle Phase-Locked Deep Brain Stimulation System Targeting Brain Oscillations in the Management of Movement Disorders
Paper
Suppression of pathological oscillations with transcranial focused ultrasound in Parkinson’s disease
Nat Commun, Epub ahead of Print (2026)
Preprint
A clinical grade neurostimulation implant for hierarchical control of physiological activity
Preprint
Dithering suppresses half-harmonic neural synchronisation to photic stimulation in humans
Distributed brain co-processor for tracking spikes, seizures and behaviour during electrical brain stimulation.
Scientific Abstract
Early implantable epilepsy therapy devices provided open-loop electrical stimulation without brain sensing, computing, or an interface for synchronized behavioural inputs from patients. Recent epilepsy stimulation devices provide brain sensing but have not yet developed analytics for accurately tracking and quantifying behaviour and seizures. Here we describe a distributed brain co-processor providing an intuitive bi-directional interface between patient, implanted neural stimulation and sensing device, and local and distributed computing resources. Automated analysis of continuous streaming electrophysiology is synchronized with patient reports using a handheld device and integrated with distributed cloud computing resources for quantifying seizures, interictal epileptiform spikes and patient symptoms during therapeutic electrical brain stimulation. The classification algorithms for interictal epileptiform spikes and seizures were developed and parameterized using long-term ambulatory data from nine humans and eight canines with epilepsy, and then implemented prospectively in out-of-sample testing in two pet canines and four humans with drug-resistant epilepsy living in their natural environments. Accurate seizure diaries are needed as the primary clinical outcome measure of epilepsy therapy and to guide brain-stimulation optimization. The brain co-processor system described here enables tracking interictal epileptiform spikes, seizures and correlation with patient behavioural reports. In the future, correlation of spikes and seizures with behaviour will allow more detailed investigation of the clinical impact of spikes and seizures on patients.
Citation
2022. Brain Commun, 4(3):fcac115.
DOI
10.1093/braincomms/fcac115
Free Full Text at Europe PMC
PMC9217965Downloads
Similar content
Preprint
Flexible and Stable Cycle-by-Cycle Phase-Locked Deep Brain Stimulation System Targeting Brain Oscillations in the Management of Movement Disorders
Paper
Suppression of pathological oscillations with transcranial focused ultrasound in Parkinson’s disease
Nat Commun, Epub ahead of Print (2026)
Preprint
A clinical grade neurostimulation implant for hierarchical control of physiological activity
Preprint