Charge-Balanced Minimum-Power Controls for Spiking Neuron Oscillators
Provides a theoretical framework for designing energy-efficient and safe electrical stimuli in neuromodulation, addressing charge accumulation side effects.
This paper derives charge-balanced minimum-power current stimuli for spiking neuron oscillators using optimal control theory, demonstrating applicability to both ideal and experimentally observed phase models including the Hodgkin-Huxley model.
In this paper, we study the optimal control of phase models for spiking neuron oscillators. We focus on the design of minimum-power current stimuli that elicit spikes in neurons at desired times. We furthermore take the charge-balanced constraint into account because in practice undesirable side effects may occur due to the accumulation of electric charge resulting from external stimuli. Charge-balanced minimum-power controls are derived for a general phase model using the maximum principle, where the cases with unbounded and bounded control amplitude are examined. The latter is of practical importance since phase models are more accurate for weak forcing. The developed optimal control strategies are then applied to both mathematically ideal and experimentally observed phase models to demonstrate their applicability, including the phase model for the widely studied Hodgkin-Huxley equations.