Neural mass models can simulate the generation of electroencephalography(EEG) signals with different rhythms,and therefore the observation of the states of these models plays a significant role in brain research. The structure of neural mass models is special in that they can be expressed as Lurie systems. The developed techniques in Lurie system theory are applicable to these models. We here provide a new observer design method for neural mass models by transforming these models and the corresponding error systems into nonlinear systems with Lurie form. The purpose is to establish appropriate conditions which ensure the convergence of the estimation error. The effectiveness of the proposed method is illustrated by numerical simulations.