Line of research: new device for Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
Project abstract:
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) refers to the induction of biocurrents in the brain by using Faraday's law of induction. The technique is largely used for brain research, and shows a great potential for handling several neurological disorders. Despite being more than twenty five years old, deep-brain TMS is strongly impaired by surface discontinuities that render even the most modern TMS devices incapable of stimulating the center of the brain with intensities larger than ca 5% of the stimuli induced in the superficial cortex. Our team is devising efforts in building a new system of coils immersed in a conducting liquid that allows for the first time to reach the center of the brain with stimuli of the order of 70% in respect to those induced in the superficial cortex. Motivating simulation and experimental work is ongoing.
Some publications/presentations:
P. Crespo, H. Simões, M. Dias Silva, C. Vieira Ferreira, L. Jesus,
H. Oliveira, P. Cavaleiro Miranda, P. Fonte, R. Salvador, J. Silvestre,
Experimental demonstration of induction by means of a
transcranial magnetic stimulator coil immersed in a conducting liquid,
5as Jornadas do Departamento de Física e Matemática do ISEC,
Apr. 17, 2013, Coimbra
H. Simões, M. Dias Silva , C. Vieira Ferreira, L. Jesus, H. Oliveira,
P. Cavaleiro Miranda , R. Salvador, P. Crespo, J. Silvestre,
Experimental demonstration of induction by means of a
transcranial magnetic stimulator coil immersed in a conducting liquid,
In Conf. Records IEEE 3rd Portuguese Meeting in Bioengineering (ENBENG), Braga,
Feb. 2013
M. Dias Silva, C. Vieira Ferreira, H. Oliveira, P. Fonte, L. Jesus,
R. Salvador, J. Silvestre, P. Crespo,
Multiple coils in a conducting liquid for deep and whole-brain
transcranial magnetic stimulation. II. Multiple-frequency excitation,
In Conf. Records IEEE 2nd Portuguese Meeting in Bioengineering (ENBENG),
Coimbra, Feb. 2012
H. Oliveira, M. Dias Silva, C. Vieira Ferreira, P. Fonte, L. Jesus,
R. Salvador, J. Silvestre, P. Crespo,
Multiple coils in a conducting liquid for deep and whole-brain
transcranial magnetic stimulation. I. Single-frequency excitation,
In Conf. Records IEEE 2nd Portuguese Meeting in Bioengineering (ENBENG),
Coimbra, Feb. 2012
H. Oliveira, L. Jesus, P. Cavaleiro Miranda, C. Vieira Ferreira,
R. Salvador, M. Dias Silva, J. Silvestre, P. Crespo,
Sobre a potencial inibição de crises epilépticas através de
estimulação biomagnética transcraniana,
presentation to the Department of Neurology, Coimbra University Hospitals,
Sep. 2011