Pennsylvania State University researchers are building models that mimic the neural activity found in seizures and Parkinson’s.

The results will help in designing better electrical-stimulation therapies for the brain.

As neurosurgical technologies improve and medical devices become smaller and more precise, interest in stimulation therapies has blossomed. Scientists theorize that it blocks abnormal electrical patterns from diseases, but little is known about how it actually works. The pattern and amplitude of electrical signals used today have been chosen largely by trial and error.

The researchers have built models that replicate oscillating neural activity recorded from the cortex of rodents. They have also built a neural model of Parkinson’s and hope to test the modeling approach on patients.