Transcranial electrical stimulator producing high amplitude pulses and pulse trains

Transcranial electrical stimulation can be used for clinical investigations of the central nervous system and for monitoring of motor nerve tracts during surgical operations. We wished to reduce the pain involved with the transcranial electrical stimulation and to improve the usefulness of the method for monitoring during surgical operations. A dedicated transcranial electrical stimulator was designed having special features to reduce the pain sensation and the nerve blocking effect of anaesthetics. It provides constant current and constant voltage stimulation pulses with very short duration and high amplitude. The pulse length is adjustable in the range of 15 to 125 microseconds, while the maximum amplitude is 100 V and 1 A for voltage and current stimulation modes, respectively. Special features included high-repetition-rate pulse trains (50-2000 pulses s-1) and a three-electrode stimulation configuration. We suggest that the electrical transcranial stimulation has the potential to be a relatively painless method for routine clinical investigations and a reliable method for monitoring during surgery.