Staat Christoph, Gattinger Norbert, Gleich Bernhard
Munich Institute of BioEngineering (MIBE) at Technical University of Munich (TUM) Boltzmannstra 11, 85748 Garching b. Muchen, Germany.
HardwareX. 2022 Dec 9;13:e00380. doi: 10.1016/j.ohx.2022.e00380. eCollection 2023 Mar.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is increasingly applied in basic neuroscience while its field of usage for diagnosing and treating various neurological diseases broadens steadily. A TMS device generates a current pulse in the reach of several thousand ampére to produce a magnetic pulse which induces an electric field around neurons. This electric field, if high enough to depolarize the neuron membrane, generates an action potential at the neuron which travels down the neurons connected to it. The PLUSPULS TMS generates this magnetic pulse by pre-charging a pulse capacitor with the voltage and connecting it with a stimulation coil . The oscillation of the resonance circuit is cut off after one period and is called a biphasic pulse. PLUSPULS is a high frequency stimulator with inter stimulus intervals (ISI) down to 1ms which enables different pulse protocols as paired pulse or quadri theta burst stimulation. A GUI on PC allows a flexible control of PLUSPULS with varying amplitudes and ISI in one burst. The modular hardware and the control via GUI on PC allows for an easier adjustment on requirements to come. The article provides design considerations, hardware, firmware and software to reconstruct a modular biphasic TMS with enhanced charging network to enable extended pulse protocols.
经颅磁刺激（TMS）在基础神经科学中的应用越来越广泛，同时其在诊断和治疗各种神经系统疾病方面的应用领域也在稳步扩大。TMS设备会产生一个数千安培的电流脉冲，以产生一个磁脉冲，该磁脉冲会在神经元周围感应出一个电场。如果这个电场强度足够高，能够使神经元膜去极化，就会在神经元上产生一个动作电位，并沿着与其相连的神经元传导。PLUSPULS TMS通过用电压对脉冲电容器进行预充电并将其与刺激线圈连接来产生这个磁脉冲。谐振电路的振荡在一个周期后被切断，称为双相脉冲。PLUSPULS是一种高频刺激器，其刺激间隔（ISI）低至1毫秒，能够实现不同的脉冲协议，如配对脉冲或四Theta爆发刺激。PC上的图形用户界面（GUI）允许在一次爆发中灵活控制PLUSPULS的幅度和ISI。模块化硬件以及通过PC上的GUI进行控制，使得未来更容易根据需求进行调整。本文提供了设计考量、硬件、固件和软件，用于重构一个具有增强充电网络的模块化双相TMS，以实现扩展的脉冲协议。
