Day 11: As Thorough As Airport Security

I always hear jokes and stories about TSA agents and how they are very thorough when it comes to searching people. Similarly, I have molested Google, searching for a response to "What is TMS?" After more searches I found two websites other than Wikipedia that are informational about the TMS, and both are of great universities: University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins University. These two universities actually offer TMS services to treat people with neuropsychiatric disorders. I don't know though if this service is limited to students only or available to the public. But if you'd like to learn more, here are the links to their websites:

1. http://www.med.upenn.edu/tms/overview.html
2. http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/psychiatry/specialty_areas/brain_stimulation/tms/index.html.

Back to TMS...

Image belongs to Johns Hopkins Medicine

TMS stands for transcranial magnetic stimulation. It is a noninvasive procedure that stimulates areas of the brain through electromagnetic induction. A weak electric current is induced using a coil that "generates short magnetic pulses," similar to those of an MRI machine, that are able to go through the surface of the head and into the brain (Johns Hopkins Medicine). Because of the electromagnetic induction, the coil only needs to rest on the scalp. The image to the right is an example of TMS being employed on a patient.

There are two modes of stimulation: Single or paired pulse and repetitive.

• Single or paired pulse TMS is what my project uses. This mode of stimulation discharges an action potential and, if used on the primary motor cortex (M1, refer to Day 6), it produces muscle activity, which we measure as MEP (motor evoked potentials).
• Repetitive TMS (rTMS) is used more for therapeutic applications, treating neuropsychiatric disorders. The two universities, UPenn and Johns Hopkins, use this mode of stimulation for treatment. rTMS has effects that last longer than single/paired pulse TMS (Wikipedia).

There are so many more exciting things to learn about TMS that relates to my project, such as risks, techniques, and different kinds of coils, but I'd like to research more so that I will be able to explain it to my readers. Feel free to comment any questions. Until next time!

References:

1. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) Service. Johns Hopkins Medicine. http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/psychiatry/specialty_areas/brain_stimulation/tms/index.html (accessed Feb 19, 2013).
2. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcranial_magnetic_stimulation (accessed Feb 19, 2013)