On the control of recurrent neural networks using constant inputs

TL;DR

This paper develops a method for controlling recurrent neural networks, including brain models, using constant inputs, enabling targeted neurostimulation strategies with explicit algebraic conditions and efficient computations.

Contribution

It introduces a control synthesis approach for nonlinear neural systems with constant inputs, providing explicit conditions and efficient algorithms for brain stimulation applications.

Findings

Explicit algebraic conditions for control synthesis.

Reachable set characterized as an affine subspace.

Numerical simulations validate the approach.

Abstract

This paper investigates the controllability of a broad class of recurrent neural networks widely used in theoretical neuroscience, including models of large-scale human brain dynamics. Motivated by emerging applications in non-invasive neurostimulation such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), we study the control synthesis of these networks using constant and piecewise constant inputs. The neural model considered is a continuous-time Hopfield-type system with nonlinear activation functions and arbitrary input matrices representing inter-regional brain interactions. Our main contribution is the formulation and solution of a control synthesis problem for such nonlinear systems using specific solution representations. These representations yield explicit algebraic conditions for synthesizing constant and piecewise constant controls that solve a two-point boundary value problem in state space up to higher-order corrections with respect to the time horizon. In particular, the input is constructed to satisfy a tractable small-time algebraic relation involving the Jacobian of the nonlinear drift, ensuring that the synthesis reduces to verifying conditions on the system matrices. For canonical input matrices that directly actuate $k$ nodes, this implies that the reachable set (with constant inputs) of a given initial state is an affine subspace whose dimension equals the input rank and whose basis can be computed efficiently using a thin QR factorization. Numerical simulations illustrate the theoretical results and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed synthesis in guiding the design of brain stimulation protocols for therapeutic and cognitive applications.