Title :
Dynamic Multi-Channel TMS With Reconfigurable Coil
Author :
Ruoli Jiang ; Jansen, B.H. ; Sheth, B.R. ; Ji Chen
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Univ. of Houston, Houston, TX, USA
Abstract :
Investigations of the causal involvement of particular brain areas and interconnections in behavior require an external stimulation system with reasonable spatio-temporal resolution. Current transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) technology is limited to stimulating a single brain area once in a given trial. Here, we present a feasibility study for a novel TMS system based on multi-channel reconfigurable coils. With this hardware, researchers will be able to stimulate multiple brain sites in any temporal order in a trial. The system employs a wire-mesh coil, constructed using x - and y -directional wires. By varying the current direction and/or strength on each wire, we can configure the proposed mesh-wire coil into a standard loop coil and figure-eight coil of varying size. This provides maximum flexibility to the experimenter in that the location and extent of stimulation on the brain surface can be modified depending on experimental requirement. Moreover, one can dynamically and automatically modify the site(s) of stimulation several times within the span of seconds. By pre-storing various sequences of excitation patterns inside a control unit, one can explore the effect of dynamic TMS on behavior, in associative learning, and as rehabilitative therapy. Here, we present a computer simulation and bench experiments that show the feasibility of the dynamically-reconfigurable coil.
Keywords :
bioelectric potentials; brain; neuromuscular stimulation; patient rehabilitation; spatiotemporal phenomena; transcranial magnetic stimulation; virtual machines; TMS system; TMS technology; associative learning; bench experiments; brain site stimulation; brain surface stimulation; computer simulation; current direction variation; current strength variation; excitation pattern sequences; hardware; loop coil; mesh-wire coil; multichannel reconfigurable coils; rehabilitative therapy; spatiotemporal resolution; transcranial magnetic stimulation technology; x -directional wires; y -directional wires; Coils; Current density; Humans; Magnetic stimulation; Spatial resolution; Wires; Electromagnetic modeling; magnetic stimulation; reconfigurable coil; Computer Simulation; Computer-Aided Design; Electric Conductivity; Equipment Design; Equipment Failure Analysis; Feasibility Studies; Magnetics; Models, Theoretical; Radiometry; Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation; Transducers;
Journal_Title :
Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TNSRE.2012.2226914