Numerical simulation of deep transcranial magnetic stimulation by multiple circular coils

Abstract

Stimulation of deeper brain structures by tran-scranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) plays a role in the study of reward and motivation mechanisms, which may be beneficial in the treatment of several neurological and psychiatric disor-ders. This paper presents a numerical simulation of deep tran-scranial magnetic stimulation (dTMS) in a realistic head model by considering large circular coil surrounding the head combi-nation of smaller coils. Three-dimensional distributions of the induced electric fields in the head were calculated by employing impedance method. Simulation results show that multiple circu-lar coils provides a potential way to produce deeply penetrating electric fields in deep brain regions with less fields in superficial cortical tissues. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.