Forecast Padding Enhances Accuracy and Robustness of EEG-Phase-Synchronized TMS

Closed-loop neuromodulation is a promising personalized treatment for various neuropsychiatric disorders, delivering precise stimuli based on real-time brain signals. However, its clinical potential is currently limited by technical challenges inherent in its real-time nature. This article addresses the primary technical challenges in EEG-Phase-Synchronized Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), including poor stimulation accuracy and inefficient biomarker detection (correlated with deadlock). These challenges arise from the vulnerability of existing algorithms to filter edge effects. Inspired by predictive coding theory in neuroscience, we propose a novel signal padding method (forecast padding) to mitigate the filter edge effect. To properly quantify the improvements that forecast padding brings about in real-world systems, we introduce a novel delay-relevant validation framework and demonstrate its reliability using experimental data from a real system. Through this framework, we demonstrate that forecast padding significantly improves both stimulation accuracy and deadlock rate. Given the pervasive impact of filter edge effects in closed-loop neuromodulation and other signal processing domains, forecast padding shows broad application potential across various fields.