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THE CATEGORY
From deep brain stimulators to consumer headsets — what the term actually means, where the science is solid, and where Sychedelic sits in the landscape.
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FREQUENTLY ASKED
A closed-loop wearable reads a biological signal and uses it to control when and whether stimulation occurs. Sychedelic reads HRV, classifies the user's cognitive zone, and only activates tDCS when the zone meets the threshold. Open-loop devices stimulate on a fixed schedule without any sensing of the user's current physiological state.
tDCS modulates cortical excitability — anodal stimulation over the DLPFC shifts neurons toward their firing threshold without causing direct action potentials. This supports working memory and executive function when concurrent with cognitive work. Dedoncker et al. (2016) found d ≈ 0.3–0.4 on reaction time across 61 sham-controlled studies in healthy adults.
Standard headphones deliver audio only. Sychedelic's R1 adds two layers: a PPG biosensor in the near-ear housing that reads HRV at 100 Hz in real time, and tDCS electrodes in the headband cushions that deliver gentle neurostimulation to the DLPFC when your physiology meets the readiness threshold. The result is a closed-loop neuromodulation protocol in a consumer headphone form factor.
Stage 1: Read HRV via 100 Hz PPG at the superficial temporal artery. Stage 2: Prime with adaptive audio if zone is suboptimal. Stage 3: Stimulate at 2.0 mA for 20 minutes at F3/F4 (DLPFC), hardware-gated. Deep work begins in the 20–90 minute post-session window. The sequence cannot be bypassed — each stage gates the next.
THE INSTRUMENT
Sychedelic combines everything described in this article into one 20-minute protocol.