High-capacity transcranial direct current stimulation (HC-tDCS)
- 1Department of Biomedical Engineering, The City College of New York, CUNY, New York, NY, USA. Electronic address: [email protected]
- 2Department of Biomedical Engineering, The City College of New York, CUNY, New York, NY, USA
- 3Department of Neurology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Enhancing tDCS technology can support the delivery of higher current intensities, enabling broader dose-response studies in human clinical trials. METHODS: High-Capacity tDCS (HC-tDCS) integrates novel electrodes and adaptive current/voltage controlled electronics. Multi-layer HC electrodes include polarity-specific redox layers and engineered hydrogel interfaces, configured for a bifrontotemporal montage. The stimulator design includes adaptive ramps with hybrid voltage-current control and low compliance voltage. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) characterized electrode properties. Tolerability of HC-tDCS was tested at target currents of 1-6 mA (in 1 mA increments) for 30 min on 10 healthy subjects, and compared with conventional tDCS using 2 mA F3-F4 sponge-electrodes. Tolerability was assessed according to the 100 mm visual analogue scale for pain (VAS-P100), skin erythema assessment, thermal imaging, and adverse event questionnaires. MRI-derived computational models predicted brain electric fields. RESULTS: The electrode design incorporating roughened redox layers with polarity-specific electrochemical capacity supports high-charge direct current stimulation. In all subjects, HC-tDCS was well tolerated at all tested doses (1-6 mA) with minor transient adverse events. Mean VAS-P100 (±SD) was 17.17 ± 11.12 for 6 mA HC-tDCS and 18.30 ± 9.49 for 2 mA sponge-electrode tDCS. HC-tDCS operated at lower voltage than sponge-tDCS. Across MRI-derived head models, 6 mA HC-tDCS produced 2.25-3.26 V/m electric fields, ∼4x higher than conventional 2 mA tDCS electric fields of 0.49-0.85 V/m. 6 mA HC-tDCS electric fields can exceed 1 V/m across frontal cortical and deeper limbic regions, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, insula, and amygdala. CONCLUSIONS: HC-tDCS was well tolerated by participants and expands the accessible tDCS dose range, enabling stimulation up to at least 6 mA and substantially higher electric fields throughout cortical and deeper brain regions than conventional 2 mA tDCS.
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BibTeX
@article{donnery2026highcapacity,
title = {{High-capacity transcranial direct current stimulation (HC-tDCS)}},
author = {Kyle Donnery and Mohamad FallahRad and Santiago Osorio and Mojtaba Belali Koochesfahani and Niranjan Khadka and Matthew Saw and Jinglin Mo and Benjamin Babaev and Rayyan Bhuiyan and Jana M. Elwassif and Marom Bikson},
journal = {Brain stimulation},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1016/j.brs.2026.103233},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brs.2026.103233},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - High-capacity transcranial direct current stimulation (HC-tDCS)
AU - Kyle Donnery
AU - Mohamad FallahRad
AU - Santiago Osorio
AU - Mojtaba Belali Koochesfahani
AU - Niranjan Khadka
AU - Matthew Saw
AU - Jinglin Mo
AU - Benjamin Babaev
AU - Rayyan Bhuiyan
AU - Jana M. Elwassif
AU - Marom Bikson
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/12
JO - Brain stimulation
DO - 10.1016/j.brs.2026.103233
UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brs.2026.103233
AB - BACKGROUND: Enhancing tDCS technology can support the delivery of higher current intensities, enabling broader dose-response studies in human clinical trials. METHODS: High-Capacity tDCS (HC-tDCS) integrates novel electrodes and adaptive current/voltage controlled electronics. Multi-layer HC electrodes include polarity-specific redox layers and engineered hydrogel interfaces, configured for a bifrontotemporal montage. The stimulator design includes adaptive ramps with hybrid voltage-current control and low compliance voltage. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) characterized electrode properties. Tolerability of HC-tDCS was tested at target currents of 1-6 mA (in 1 mA increments) for 30 min on 10 healthy subjects, and compared with conventional tDCS using 2 mA F3-F4 sponge-electrodes. Tolerability was assessed according to the 100 mm visual analogue scale for pain (VAS-P100), skin erythema assessment, thermal imaging, and adverse event questionnaires. MRI-derived computational models predicted brain electric fields. RESULTS: The electrode design incorporating roughened redox layers with polarity-specific electrochemical capacity supports high-charge direct current stimulation. In all subjects, HC-tDCS was well tolerated at all tested doses (1-6 mA) with minor transient adverse events. Mean VAS-P100 (±SD) was 17.17 ± 11.12 for 6 mA HC-tDCS and 18.30 ± 9.49 for 2 mA sponge-electrode tDCS. HC-tDCS operated at lower voltage than sponge-tDCS. Across MRI-derived head models, 6 mA HC-tDCS produced 2.25-3.26 V/m electric fields, ∼4x higher than conventional 2 mA tDCS electric fields of 0.49-0.85 V/m. 6 mA HC-tDCS electric fields can exceed 1 V/m across frontal cortical and deeper limbic regions, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, insula, and amygdala. CONCLUSIONS: HC-tDCS was well tolerated by participants and expands the accessible tDCS dose range, enabling stimulation up to at least 6 mA and substantially higher electric fields throughout cortical and deeper brain regions than conventional 2 mA tDCS.
SN - 1876-4754
SN - 1935-861X
ER -