Instrumentation for the measurement of electric brain responses to transcranial magnetic stimulation

Abstract

There is described a 60-channel EEG acquisition system designed for the recording of scalp-potential distributions starting just 2.5 ms after individual transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) pulses. The amplifier comprises gain-control and sample-and-hold circuits to prevent large artefacts from magnetically induced voltages in the leads. The maximum amplitude of the stimulus artefact during the 2.5 ms gating period is 1.7 microV, and 5 ms after the TMS pulse it is only 0.9 microV. It is also shown that mechanical forces to the electrodes under the stimulator coil are a potential source of artefacts, even though, with chlorided silver wire and Ag/AgCl-pellet electrodes, the artefact is smaller than 1 microV. The TMS-compatible multichannel EEG system makes it possible to locate TMS-evoked electric activity in the brain.