Theoretical Analysis And Design Of An Innovative Coil Structure For Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Featured ApplicationSince magnetic stimulation can activate brain tissue with optimum intensity and frequency, it demonstrates great potential for many medical applications, procedures, and treatments. For example, it makes it easier to reach a deeper region beneath the skin without causing any trauma or pain. In addition, magnetic stimulation does not leave any residues in the operated tissues. However, the magnetic fields generated by typical and conventional coils are uniform around their targets, and their magnetic stimulation performance still needs improvement. Thus, an innovative coil that has a quad coil form was proposed for transcranial magnetic stimulation, which makes it possible to shrink the irritative zone and strengthen the stimulation intensity, thus achieving higher magnetic stimulation performance.Previous research showed that pulsed functional magnetic stimulation can activate brain tissue with optimum intensity and frequency. Conventional stimulation coils are always set as a figure-8 type or Helmholtz. However, the magnetic fields generated by these coils are uniform around the target, and their magnetic stimulation performance still needs improvement. In this paper, a novel type of stimulation coil is proposed to shrink the irritative zone and strengthen the stimulation intensity. Furthermore, the electromagnetic field distribution is calculated and measured. Based on numerical simulations, the proposed coil is compared to traditional coil types. Moreover, the influential factors, such as the diameter and the intersection angle, are also analyzed. It was demonstrated that the proposed coil has a better performance in comparison with the figure-8 coil. Thus, this work suggests a new way to design stimulation coils for transcranial magnetic stimulation.