Steerable non-invasive brain stimulation (pulsed TES)

Published:

Transcranial electrical stimulation is non-invasive and cheap — but the current goes everywhere, and nobody can say precisely which neurons it drives. Under DARPA’s Next-Generation Nonsurgical Neurotechnology (N3) program, I worked on making it steerable: multi-channel pulsed TES (pTES) whose current distribution can be shaped electronically to focus on a cortical target.

I designed experiments in anesthetized NHPs testing the stimulating resolution of a non-invasive TES electrode array, and wrote the acquisition/analysis software that synchronized stimulation with up to 128 channels of monopolar HD-EMG — including an online pipeline to identify stimuli with characteristic evoked responses. That software transitioned to Phase 3 human experiments. In humans, our steerable pTES work has focused on motor cortex, including how to make stimulation tolerable: background “hums” reduce the scalp pain that otherwise limits pTES dosing. (I was nominated in the first cohort of DARPA Risers, 2022.)

Selected publications