Effect of Anatomical Brain Development on Induced Electric Fields During Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Abstract

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is increasingly becoming an established method for the treatment of drug-resistant major depressive disorder. It is also widely used in cognitive neuroscience and psychology to map brain function and modulate brain activity. The majority of studies utilizing TMS are performed with adult patients, but the method may also be of use for a variety of purposes for pediatric patients. To study the safety implications of performing TMS on patients of various ages, the induced electric field in the brain has been calculated with numerical methods with a variety of anatomically realistic human body models of different ages. The results of this paper show that large differences in induced electric field occur in patients of different ages and consideration of these differences must be taken into account to achieve the desired neurological effect.