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Updated: Jun 20, 2026

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation and Simultaneous Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Published on: April 27, 2014
Personalized high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation improves cognition following carbon monoxide
Brett S Schneider1,2,3, Melvin McInnis3, Victor Di Rita2
1Mental Health Service, VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Objective:
High-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) has the potential to improve cognitive functioning following neurological injury and in neurodegenerative conditions. In this case report, we present the first use of HD-tDCS in a person with severe anterograde amnesia following carbon monoxide poisoning.
Method:
The participant underwent two rounds of HD-tDCS that were separated by 3 months (Round 1 = 30 sessions; Round 2 = 31 sessions). We used finite element modeling of the participant's structural MRI to develop an individualized montage that targeted multiple brain regions involved in memory encoding, as identified by Neurosynth.
Results:
Overall, the participant's objective cognitive functioning improved significantly following Round 1, declined during the 2 months without HD-tDCS, and again improved following Round 2. Subjective informant reports from family and medical personnel followed this same pattern of improvement following each round with a decline in between rounds. We also provide preliminary evidence of altered brain activity during a learning/memory task using functional near-infrared spectroscopy, which may help establish the physiological effects of HD-tDCS in future work.
Conclusion:
Overall, these findings reinforce the potential value of HD-tDCS as a user-friendly method of enhancing cognition following anoxic/hypoxic brain injury.
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