Univ. of Iowa Health Care looks into how transcranial magnetic stimulation impacts the brain

IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) - A new development through the University of Iowa could help treat depression in a more direct way.

What looks like a simple process is actually far more in depth. It’s called TMS or transcranial magnetic stimulation.

“We hold the TMS coil which is about the size of a hand, and it really just has copper wires in the shape of an 8. You can hold that coil over somebody’s brain and stimulate it electrically,” said University of Iowa Heath Care Associate Professor of Pediatrics & General Neurology Dr. Aaron Boes. “When you send electricity around those copper wires it creates a magnetic field, that magnetic field fluctuates around your head, it will induce and electric current.”

It’s used to help stimulate the brain and assist in treating things like depression and obsessive compulsive disorder. Through the TMS process, UIHC has developed a new tool that allows scientists to measure the effect of it on the brain in real time.

“Those electrodes need to be there to monitor for where seizures are starting, so it’s a clinical indication for why these patients are in the hospital. But we’re using that situation to really understand how TMS is effecting their brain in real time with recording devices that are inside the surface of the brain,” said Dr. Boes.

Additionally, this new tool allows more technicians to be hands-on in the research process.

“In this setting like this in the clinic, where we can do translational research, where we can essentially take part in the research and when we learn new things that can improve things for the patients, we can pretty well immediately roll those out and employ those in the clinic,” said UIHC Research Specialist Brandt Uitermarkt.

And the long-term goal is to have this sort of protocol spread to other medical centers.

“The long-term vision is to use this model to better understand how TMS affects the brain and then use that information to improve upon the therapies that exist and develop new therapies as well,” said Dr. Boes.

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