Transcranial alternating current stimulation device for enhancing brain synchronization of two persons and application method of transcranial alternating current stimulation device
Through a three-electrode structure and precisely controlled transcranial alternating current stimulation device, the problems of hardware redundancy and current interference in the synchronous regulation of two human brains were solved, the synchronization of two human brains was enhanced, and the emotional coordination ability and social cooperation were improved.
Patent Information
- Application Number
- CN202510921617.5
- Authority / Receiving Office
- CN · China
- Patent Type
- Applications(China)
- Current Assignee / Owner
- Filing Date
- 2025-07-04
- Publication Date
- 2025-09-23
AI Technical Summary
Existing transcranial electrical stimulation technology mainly targets a single individual and fails to effectively solve the problems of hardware redundancy, inconsistent timing, and current interference in the synchronous regulation of two human brains, making it difficult to achieve enhanced cross-brain synchronization in multi-subject interactions.
It adopts a three-electrode structure, including two independent positive channels and a common return electrode, to ensure that the total current is zero. It achieves precise control by stimulating the main control unit, outputting AC current with the same frequency and consistent phase. It is suitable for dual brain synchronization enhancement, including empathy regulation, cooperation training and other scenarios.
It significantly enhances the phase synchronization of the alpha waves of the prefrontal lobes of two people, improves the cross-brain emotional coordination ability, reduces hardware complexity and electromagnetic interference, and is suitable for emotional empathy training, social disorder intervention and intimate relationship regulation.
Smart Images
Figure CN120679088A_ABST
Abstract
Description
Technical Field
[0001] The present invention relates to the technical field of transcranial alternating current stimulation for dual brain synchronization, and specifically to a transcranial alternating current stimulation device for enhancing dual brain synchronization and an application method thereof. Background Art
[0002] In recent years, with the rapid development of social neuroscience and human-computer interaction technology, cross-individual neural synchronization has become an important physiological mechanism for understanding human social behavior and relationship regulation. Enhanced EEG synchronization has been shown to be closely associated with empathy, cooperation, and prosocial behavior. However, effectively enhancing this cross-brain synchronization through technological means remains a challenge.
[0003] Currently, mainstream transcranial electrical stimulation technologies, such as transcranial direct current stimulation (DCS) and transcranial alternating current stimulation (ACS), are primarily implemented on a single individual, applying low-intensity currents to modulate neural excitability or brain oscillation rhythms in specific brain regions. These methods have been widely used to treat neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression and attention disorders. However, existing stimulation systems are based on a "one person, one device" architecture and lack system optimization for two-person simultaneous control scenarios, resulting in issues such as hardware redundancy, inconsistent timing, and current interference.
[0004] Furthermore, in multi-agent interactions, the prefrontal cortex is a key target for synchronous intervention due to its central role in emotion regulation, intention understanding, and social coordination. Previous studies have shown that synchronization of alpha wave rhythms (approximately 10 Hz) across individuals can enhance empathy and social coordination. Therefore, developing a compact, synchronized, and precisely controlled two-person transcranial electrical stimulation system is a key requirement for advancing cross-brain neurointervention technology. Summary of the Invention
[0005] To achieve the above objectives, the present invention is implemented through the following technical solutions: a transcranial alternating current stimulation device for enhancing brain synchronization between two individuals and its application method. The device achieves enhanced brain synchronization between two individuals by precisely controlling the frequency and phase of neural oscillations in the prefrontal region. The device is suitable for scenarios such as empathy regulation, cooperation training, and relationship modeling, including: The first positive electrode channel (110A) and the second positive electrode channel (110B) are connected to the electrodes in the prefrontal region of the first individual and the second individual, respectively, and are used to output an alternating current at a set frequency. The frequency is set to the middle frequency of the alpha wave frequency band associated with emotion, that is, the 10 Hz alpha wave frequency band, which has a strong ability to induce synchronization and is particularly suitable for brain regions related to emotion and social cognition; A common return electrode (130) forms a closed-loop current path with the two individuals simultaneously, ensuring charge conservation during stimulation, ensuring ΣI=0, avoiding interference crossover between loops, and reducing physical device complexity; The stimulation main control unit (200) has a built-in multi-channel stimulation function, outputs current with milliampere-level precision, supports programming of stimulation frequency, phase, and waveform, and its core function is to coordinate two positive electrode channels to achieve precise synchronous control and output stimulation signals with the same waveform, frequency, and phase; A control terminal device (300) is provided, through which a user can wirelessly operate the entire system, including setting parameters (such as frequency, waveform, intensity, phase, stimulation duration) and starting stimulation tasks. The terminal can be a laptop, a tablet computer, or an embedded controller, and has a graphical operation interface, thereby improving the flexibility of the device and the adaptability of the experiment; Through the coordination of the above components, this system can achieve synchronized neural regulation between two individuals in a non-invasive manner, and is particularly suitable for studying or intervening in social interaction tasks based on neural synchronization.
[0006] Preferably, the three-electrode structure composed of the first positive electrode channel (110A), the second positive electrode channel (110B) and the shared return electrode (130) achieves the following advantages in dual-human brain stimulation by sharing a return path: 1) Hardware resource optimization: Compared to equipping two people with a complete circuit each, this architecture reduces the number of electrodes and device channels without sacrificing functionality, making it suitable for laboratory or portable settings; 2) Phase consistency: The shared return electrode serves as a unified reference point, giving the two output positive currents a natural phase coupling advantage, making it particularly suitable for neural synchronization tasks that require strict timing control. 3) Electrical interference suppression: Because the sum of the currents is zero, this structure significantly reduces potential problems caused by electromagnetic interference and ground imbalance, ensuring the validity of neural control data; This structure is an innovative form that has not yet been systematically implemented in the current public literature. It has broad engineering promotion significance in dual-human brain stimulation research and application scenarios.
[0007] Preferably, it supports frequency-adjustable stimulation parameter control, including commonly used cognitive / emotional frequency bands such as alpha waves (8–12 Hz) and theta waves (4–7 Hz). Random phase stimulation or fixed phase stimulation in phase-locked mode can be set. All stimulation parameters can be changed in real time through the control terminal according to experimental requirements to meet multi-task and multi-experimental scenarios. This function ensures that the device is not limited to experimental tasks of fixed-frequency alpha waves, but can also be expanded to neural network rhythm research, attention intervention, sleep regulation and other directions.
[0008] Preferably, it is suitable for two-person interaction tasks, including: empathy arousal tasks: such as watching sad emotional videos and other experimental paradigms, which are often used to measure the coupling relationship between emotional synchronization and brain synchronization; cooperative tasks: such as two-person rhythm synchronization, gesture imitation, and language collaboration; conflict regulation scenarios: such as regulating brain resonance in emotional confrontation tasks; During stimulation, two individuals receive the same-phase stimulation, which helps induce increased synchronization of prefrontal alpha waves, thereby improving the level of neural coupling between individuals. This effect has been empirically verified in experiments using synchronization indicators such as EEG / PLI.
[0009] Preferably, it also includes a programmable control interface for controlling the stimulation duration: it can be arbitrarily set within the range of tens of seconds to thousands of seconds; stimulation intensity: the peak current does not exceed 1mA to ensure human safety; phase mode: supports 0° in-phase, 180° anti-phase or other specified phase difference modes; control interface: has a graphical software interface for easy access by researchers.
[0010] Preferably, the stimulation signal is used to increase brain synchronization between two individuals. These increases in neural synchronization can be used not only as research tools but also as clinical intervention assessment indicators, suitable for use in situations such as mood disorders, social disorders, and intimate relationship conflicts.
[0011] A method for applying a transcranial alternating current stimulation device for enhancing brain synchronization between two people comprises the following steps: The user or experimenter first wears a standard EEG cap equipped with the device and fixes the positive electrode to the target area of the frontal lobe; The shared return electrode is connected to low-impedance sites such as the neck or behind the ear of each person and connected to the return channel of the stimulator via a Y-shaped cable; Turn on the control system, set the stimulation parameters, and start the two positive outputs simultaneously; During the synchronous stimulation, users watch emotionally evocative videos to activate the emotional resonance mechanism. The entire stimulation process is completed in a quiet, non-conversational state. After the stimulation ends, the system is turned off and behavioral or neural synchronization indicators are recorded.
[0012] It has the following beneficial effects: In actual application, this device can significantly enhance the phase synchronization of the alpha waves of the prefrontal lobes of two people, improve the ability of cross-brain emotional coordination, and show long-term behavioral stabilization effects in subsequent tracking. In addition, due to the use of non-invasive stimulation, simple structure and flexible connection, the device can be widely used in scenarios such as emotional empathy training, social disorder intervention, intimacy regulation research, brain synchronization enhancement in cooperative tasks, and human-computer collaborative training.
[0013] An innovative three-electrode structure design was proposed, consisting of two independent positive channels and one shared return channel. Compared with the traditional one-positive and one-negative structure for single-person stimulation, this structure can significantly reduce the hardware channel requirements in the scenario of simultaneous stimulation of two people, avoid multi-loop interference, and ensure the current closed loop (ΣI=0) and phase consistency through a single return path, thereby improving the controllability and stability of synchronous intervention.
[0014] The system reorganizes the structural connections of the existing multi-channel transcranial electrical stimulation platform without changing its underlying circuit or drive unit. Instead, it constructs a two-person synchronous stimulation framework through cable topology and parameter configuration optimization. The two positive channels output completely in-phase sinusoidal currents in the set 10Hz α wave frequency band, acting on the prefrontal cortex area of the two people, inducing neural rhythm resonance in the two people.
[0015] It supports programmable control, allowing users to set frequency, waveform, current intensity, duration, and phase mode. It can also remotely control or automatically synchronize behavioral tasks through the software interface. It can be used in conjunction with social situations such as video empathy tasks to enhance emotional resonance and behavioral coordination.
[0016] For the first time, a transcranial communication stimulation system with shared circuits, unified phases, and programmable control for two people was realized, and its effect on improving cross-brain synchronization was verified in an emotional arousal situation, which has important scientific research and clinical translation value. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0017] Figure 1 This is a schematic structural diagram of the transcranial alternating current stimulation device for enhancing dual brain synchronization according to the present invention.
[0018] In the figure: 110A, first positive electrode channel; 110B, second positive electrode channel; 130, common return electrode; 200, stimulation main control unit; 300, control terminal device. DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0019] The following will clearly and completely describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without making creative efforts are within the scope of protection of the present invention.
[0020] See also Figure 1 The present invention provides a technical solution: a transcranial alternating current stimulation device for enhancing brain synchronization between two people, mainly comprising the following parts: The positive electrode 110A for the first-body stimulation was fixed at the first-body prefrontal cortex (Fpz) position; The positive electrode 110B for the second individual stimulation is fixed at the second individual's prefrontal cortex (Fpz); The two individuals share a return electrode 130, each fixed at the Cz position; Connect to the stimulation control unit 200: used to output a completely in-phase AC stimulation signal, such as a sine wave with a frequency of 10 Hz, and control parameters such as stimulation intensity, duration, and phase. The system can be implemented using a multi-channel stimulator, such as the Neuroelectrics Starstim 8-channel system, and programmed and controlled through the software interface of the control terminal 300; The first positive channel 110A and the second positive channel 110B are connected to two independent stimulation output ports, respectively. The shared return electrode 130 is connected to the two return channels of the device via a Y-type topology, forming a closed loop to ensure that the sum of the currents of the two people is zero, that is, ΣI=0, to avoid cross interference. Electrical stimulation parameter setting: In the experimental setting, the recommended parameters are as follows: Frequency: α wave band 10Hz; Waveform: sine wave; Current intensity: 1mA peak, gradually ramping up / down to reduce discomfort; Stimulation duration: 20 minutes; Phase relationship: 0°; All parameters can be adjusted through the control software interface to adapt to different experimental goals or user needs; Implementation Process The user or experimenter first wears a standard EEG cap and fixes the positive electrode to the target area of the frontal lobe, such as Fpz; The shared return electrode is connected to low-impedance sites such as the neck or behind the ear of each person and connected to the return channel of the stimulator via a Y-shaped cable; Turn on the control system, set the stimulation parameters, and start the two positive outputs simultaneously; Users watch emotionally evocative videos during synchronous stimulation to activate the emotional resonance mechanism; The entire stimulation process was completed in a quiet, non-talking state. After the stimulation, the system was turned off and behavioral or neural synchronization indicators were recorded.
[0021] Obviously, the embodiments described are only some of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of them. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field and related fields without making creative efforts should fall within the scope of protection of the present invention. Structures, devices, and operating methods not specifically described and explained in the present invention shall be implemented in accordance with conventional means in the field unless otherwise specified or limited.
Claims
1. A transcranial alternating current stimulation device for enhancing brain synchronization between two people, characterized in that: include: A first positive electrode channel (110A) and a second positive electrode channel (110B), connected to electrodes in the prefrontal regions of the first individual and the second individual, respectively, for outputting alternating current at a set frequency; A common return electrode (130) forms a closed-loop current path with the two individuals simultaneously, ensuring charge conservation during stimulation, ensuring ΣI=0, avoiding interference crossover between loops, and reducing physical device complexity; A stimulation master control unit (200) has a built-in multi-channel stimulation function, outputs current with milliampere-level accuracy, and supports programming of stimulation frequency, phase, and waveform; The control terminal device (300) is used by the user to wirelessly operate the entire system, including setting parameters and starting stimulation tasks.
2. The transcranial alternating current stimulation device for enhancing dual-brain synchronization according to claim 1, characterized in that: The first positive electrode channel (110A), the second positive electrode channel (110B) and the common return electrode (130) form a three-electrode structure.
3. A transcranial alternating current stimulation device for enhancing dual brain synchronization according to claim 2, characterized in that: Supports frequency-adjustable stimulation parameter control, including alpha wave (8–12Hz) and theta wave (4–7Hz) cognitive / emotional frequency bands.
4. A transcranial alternating current stimulation device for enhancing dual brain synchronization according to claim 3, characterized in that: Applicable to two-person interaction tasks, including: empathy arousal tasks, cooperation tasks, and conflict mediation scenarios.
5. The transcranial alternating current stimulation device for enhancing dual brain synchronization according to claim 4, characterized in that: It also includes a programmable control interface for controlling stimulation duration, stimulation intensity, and phase mode.
6. A transcranial alternating current stimulation device for enhancing dual brain synchronization according to claim 5, characterized in that: The stimulation signal is used to improve the brain synchronization index between two individuals.
7. A method for using a transcranial alternating current stimulation device for enhancing brain synchronization between two people, characterized in that: The steps include: The user or experimenter first wears a standard EEG cap equipped with the device and fixes the positive electrode to the target area of the frontal lobe; The shared return electrode is connected to low-impedance sites such as the neck or behind the ear of each person and connected to the return channel of the stimulator via a Y-shaped cable; Turn on the control system, set the stimulation parameters, and start the two positive outputs simultaneously; During the synchronous stimulation, users watch emotionally evocative videos to activate the emotional resonance mechanism. The entire stimulation process is completed in a quiet, non-conversational state. After the stimulation ends, the system is turned off and behavioral or neural synchronization indicators are recorded.