MODular and EXpandable multi-locus Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

We aim to develop and validate a versatile and affordable transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) system that can perform adaptive and automated brain stimulation.

TMS is performed routinely in thousands of hospitals worldwide for diagnostics (e.g., to measure corticospinal excitability), for presurgical planning (to locate eloquent brain areas that should not be harmed), and for treating severe depression and neuropathic pain.

Unfortunately, only about 50% of patients benefit from the treatment; the treatments are also very time-consuming.Current TMS protocols are user-dependent, non-personalized, and stimulate only one brain target at a time; furthermore, target searches can take up to 10 minutes. When only one cortical node is stimulated, networks are difficult to modulate.

Therefore, we need stimulus sequences that activate precise cortical nodes in specific networks involved in different disorders such as depression, addiction, or neuropathic pain.

This can be done with so-called multi-locus TMS (mTMS), which we have developed in the ongoing ERC Synergy project ConnectToBrain, but the barrier to users purchasing mTMS is often the high cost.In this project, we will introduce a minimum viable prototype, an affordable 3-channel entry system for mTMS that enables efficient clinical protocols, provides operator independence, and saves time in patient care, with the potential to improve the clinical outcome.

We aim to demonstrate the viability and value of this 3-channel device, which can later be expanded to a larger one simply by adding electronic modules and new coil sets.

We intend to demonstrate the speeding up of motor cortex hotspot search by a factor of 510 and to show experimentally that the new multi-locus technology will markedly improve the efficacy of inducing plastic changes in the target network.