Gwangju Institute of Science &Technology, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Gwangju, 61005, South Korea.
Gwangju Institute of Science &Technology, Department of Biomedical Science and Engineering, Gwangju, 61005, South Korea.
Sci Rep. 2017 Jan 13;7:40612. doi: 10.1038/srep40612.
A transcranial channel is an interface between the skull and brain; it consists of a biocompatible and highly conductive material that helps convey the current induced by transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to the target area. However, it has been proposed only conceptually, and there has been no concrete study of its efficacy. In this work, we conducted a computational investigation of this conceptual transcranial model with high-definition tDCS, inducing focalized neuromodulation to determine whether inclusion of a transcranial channel performs effectively. To do so, we constructed an anatomically realistic head model and compartmental pyramidal neuronal models. We analyzed membrane polarization by extracellular stimulation and found that the inclusion of a transcranial channel induced polarization at the target area 11 times greater than conventional HD-tDCS without the transcranial channel. Furthermore, the stimulation effect of the transcranial channel persisted up to approximately 80%, even when the stimulus electrodes were displaced approximately 5 mm from the target area. We investigated the efficacy of the transcranial channel and found that greatly improved stimulation intensity and focality may be achieved. Thus, the use of these channels may be promising for clinical treatment.
颅外通道是颅骨和大脑之间的接口；它由生物相容性和高导电性材料组成，有助于将经颅直流电刺激（tDCS）产生的电流传导到目标区域。然而，它只是在概念上被提出，并没有对其疗效进行具体研究。在这项工作中，我们对具有高清晰度 tDCS 的这种概念性颅外模型进行了计算研究，诱导聚焦神经调节，以确定包含颅外通道是否能有效发挥作用。为此，我们构建了一个解剖学上逼真的头部模型和分区金字塔神经元模型。我们通过细胞外刺激分析了膜极化，发现与没有颅外通道的传统高清晰度 tDCS 相比，包含颅外通道可使目标区域的极化程度增加 11 倍。此外，即使刺激电极从目标区域移动约 5 毫米，颅外通道的刺激效果仍能持续约 80%。我们研究了颅外通道的疗效，发现可以实现大大提高的刺激强度和聚焦性。因此，这些通道的使用可能有望用于临床治疗。
