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Updated: May 14, 2026

Electrode Positioning and Montage in Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation
Published on: May 23, 2011
The relationship between transcranial current stimulation electrode montages and the effect of the skull orbital
A Mekonnen1, R Salvador, G Ruffini
1Institute of Biophysics and Biomedical Engineering (IBEB), Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal. aamekonnen@fc.ul.pt
Abstract:
Due to its low electric conductivity, the skull has a major impact on the electric field distribution in the brain in transcranial current stimulation (tCS). However, the skull has several openings that are filled with higher conductivity soft tissues, and through which a significant fraction of the injected current may pass. We show that current entering the brain via the orbital openings increases the electric field intensity in the cortical regions near the orbit. Furthermore, this depends on the how far electrodes are placed from the orbital openings.

