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History of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

The effects of magnetic fields on humans were considered as early as the eighteenth century by Mesmer. However, it was not until the end of nineteenth century that scientists started to use magnetic energy to alter brain activity. The first publications on magnetic stimulation described Jacques D’Arsonval’s experiments in 1898 stimulating the retina, and similar work of Silvanus P. Thompson in 1910. Already, the magnetic stimulators were powerful enough to activate the retinal cells, causing the subjects to perceive light flashes, but the fields generated were too weak to stimulate brain tissue.


In 1965, Bickford and Fremming used a damped 500 Hz sinusoidal magnetic field to demonstrate muscular stimulation in animals and humans. Subsequently, Oberg (1973) magnetically excited nerve tissue. The first successful magnetic stimulation of superficial nerves was reported by Polson et al. in 1982 (Polson, Barker, and Freeston, 1982).

Finally, the first Transcranial magnetic stimulation of the central nervous system and cortical regions was achieved in 1985 (Barker and Freeston, 1985; Barker, Freeston, Jalinous, Merton, and Morton, 1985; Barker, Jalinous, and Freeston, 1985). Barker’s device was quickly adopted by neurologists, who now routinely employ single-stimulus TMS instruments to measure nerve-conduction time. The therapeutic potential of TMS was not realized until the repetitive stimulator (rTMS), which can generate up to 30 pulses per second, became available in the 1990s.


  • Barker AT, Freeston IL (1985): Medical applications of electric and magnetic fields. Electron. Power 31:(10) 757-60.
  • Barker AT, Freeston IL, Jalinous R, Merton PA, Morton HB (1985): Magnetic stimulation of the human brain. J. Physiol. (Lond.) 369: 3P.
  • Barker AT, Jalinous R, Freeston IL (1985): Non-invasive magnetic stimulation of human motor cortex. Lancet 1:(8437) 1106-7.
  • Bickford RG, Fremming BD (1965): Neuronal stimulation by pulsed magnetic fields in animals and man. In Digest of the 6th Internat. Conf. Medical Electronics and Biological Engineering, p. 112, IFMBE
  • Polson MJ, Barker AT, Freeston IL (1982): Stimulation of nerve trunks with time-varying magnetic fields. Med. & Biol. Eng. & Comput. 20:(2) 243-4.
  • Thompson SP (1910): A physiological effect of an alternating magnetic field. Proc. R. Soc. (Biol.) 82: 396-8.

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Last Modified: February 1, 2008
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DOE, Office of ScienceOne of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical, biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies and national security. Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major scientific facilities available to university, industry and government researchers. Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE's Office of Science by Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited-liability company founded by Stony Brook University, the largest academic user of Laboratory facilities, and Battelle, a nonprofit, applied science and technology organization.

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