Solving the positioning problem in TMS

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is a powerful method to examine the brain and tread disorders of the head painlessly and non-invasively. With TMS it is possible to stimulate regions of the motoric cortex which results in the activation of the corresponding muscles. Furthermore, TMS is becoming an alternative treatment for depressions. In all cases correct placement of the TMS coil at the patients head is crucial to the success of the application. We developed a way to guide the TMS coil by a KUKA robot with six degrees of freedom and navigate it using an online registration of the subject's head to its 3D magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data. Furthermore, we used the advantages of a robotized system to acquire detailed magnetic field data for the TMS coil in use. Combining them with navigated measures of motor evoked potential using techniques from multimodal image registration gave rise to an alternative way of brain mapping.