Simultaneous Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Aspects of Technical Implementation

The simultaneous transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) offers a unique opportunity to non-invasively stimulate brain circuits while simultaneously monitoring changes in brain activity. However, to take advantage of this multimodal technique, some technical issues need to be considered/addressed. In this work, we evaluated technical issues associated with the setup and utilization of this multimodal tool, such as the use of a large single-channel radio frequency (rf) coil, and the artifacts induced by TMS when interleaved with the echo-planar imaging (EPI) sequence. We demonstrated that good image quality can be achieved with this rf coil and that the adoption of axial imaging orientation in conjunction with a safe interval of 100 ms, between the TMS pulse and imaging acquisition, is a suitable combination to eliminate potential image artifacts when using the combined TMS-fMRI technique in 3-T MRI scanners.