Thielscher Axel, Antunes Andre, Saturnino Guilherme B
Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2015;2015:222-5. doi: 10.1109/EMBC.2015.7318340.
Electric field calculations based on numerical methods and increasingly realistic head models are more and more used in research on Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS). However, they are still far from being established as standard tools for the planning and analysis in practical applications of TMS. Here, we start by delineating three main challenges that need to be addressed to unravel their full potential. This comprises (i) identifying and dealing with the model uncertainties, (ii) establishing a clear link between the induced fields and the physiological stimulation effects, and (iii) improving the usability of the tools for field calculation to the level that they can be easily used by non-experts. We then introduce a new version of our pipeline for field calculations (www.simnibs.org) that substantially simplifies setting up and running TMS and tDCS simulations based on Finite-Element Methods (FEM). We conclude with a brief outlook on how the new version of SimNIBS can help to target the above identified challenges.
基于数值方法和日益逼真的头部模型进行的电场计算，在经颅磁刺激（TMS）研究中的应用越来越广泛。然而，在TMS的实际应用中，它们作为规划和分析的标准工具仍远未确立。在此，我们首先阐述为充分挖掘其潜力需要解决的三个主要挑战。这包括：（i）识别并处理模型的不确定性；（ii）在感应场与生理刺激效应之间建立明确的联系；（iii）将场计算工具的易用性提高到非专家也能轻松使用的水平。然后，我们介绍了我们的场计算流程的新版本（www.simnibs.org），该版本基于有限元方法（FEM），极大地简化了TMS和经颅直流电刺激（tDCS）模拟的设置和运行。最后，我们简要展望了SimNIBS的新版本如何有助于应对上述已识别的挑战。
