No abstract

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) (Barker et al 1985) is a non-invasive technique for brain neurostimulation used in clinical diagnosis and to understand brain functions in neuroscience. Recently, repetitive TMS has been used for treating different conditions such as depression or obsessive compulsive disorder (

Deep transcranial magnetic stimulation (dTMS) is a non-invasive technique used in treating depression. In this study, we computationally evaluate group-level dosage during dTMS with the aim of characterizing targeted deep brain regions to overcome the limitation of using individualized head models to characterize coil performance in a population.We use an inter-subject registration method adapted to deep brain regions that enable projection of computed electric fields (EFs) from individual realistic head models (n = 18) to the average space of deep brain regions. The computational results showed consistent group-level hotspots of the EF in deep brain region with intensities between 20%-50% of the maximum EF in the cortex. Large co-activation in other brain regions was confirmed while half-value penetration depth from the cortical surface was smaller than 2 cm. The halo figure-8 assembly and halo circular assembly coils induced the highest EFs for caudate, putamen, and hippocampus.Generalized induced EF maps of deep regions show target regions despite inter-individual difference. This is the first study that visualizes generalized target regions during dTMS and provides a method for making informed decisions during dTMS interventions in clinical practice.