Modern psychiatry often feels like it stands on the edge of science fiction. We use magnets to alter mood, pulses to soften obsessions, and stimulation patterns to reorganise brain networks. But like every advanced tool, rTMS (Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) began as a daring experiment—part curiosity, part serendipity, part stubborn belief that the brain could be influenced from the outside without cutting it open.

The story begins not in a psychiatry ward, but in the evolving world of neurophysiology.

The First Spark: Faraday, Fields, and the Invisible Force

The conceptual seeds of rTMS come from Michael Faraday, who discovered electromagnetic induction in 1831. He found that moving magnetic fields could generate electrical currents. He did not know it then, but this principle would one day allow clinicians to stimulate neurons without touching them.

A century later, early physiologists played with electrical currents delivered directly to the brain—but shock therapy, though effective, was crude and painful. The field needed something gentler. Something elegant. Something non-invasive.

Magnets, long ignored, quietly waited.

The First Human TMS Device: Anthony Barker, 1985

In 1985, a biomedical engineer at the University of Sheffield, Dr. Anthony Barker, built the first modern TMS coil. His team demonstrated that a single magnetic pulse could activate the motor cortex and cause a muscle twitch in the hand.

That image—a hand jerking from a magnetic pulse—was the birth of non-invasive brain stimulation.

Neurology immediately recognised its value for studying motor conduction. Psychiatry, however, had no idea yet how deeply this technology would reshape its future.

From Single Pulses to Therapeutic Potential

The leap from “a pulse can activate neurons” to “pulses can treat depression” required scientists who believed mood lived in networks, not chemicals alone.

Researchers like Mark George and Alvaro Pascual-Leone saw a possibility: if the prefrontal cortex of depressed patients showed hypoactivity, could magnetic pulses reawaken it?

Early studies were modest but promising. Patients reported brighter mood, improved motivation, and greater emotional resilience.

The field had found a biological lever.

2008: The Turning Point

After years of trials, the FDA approved rTMS for treatment-resistant depression in 2008. This was monumental:

• No anesthesia
• No seizures
• No systemic side effects
• Network-level modulation
• Clear efficacy

Psychiatry, after decades of relying on medications, suddenly had a tool that could change brain circuits directly.

A new subfield—Interventional Psychiatry—was born.

Today: Precision Stimulation and the Dawn of Closed-Loop Psychiatry

Modern rTMS is no longer crude. It is exquisitely targeted.

• Theta-burst protocols
• DLPFC localization using neuronavigation
• Accelerated protocols like Stanford SAINT
• Precision dosing using motor thresholds
• Future closed-loop stimulation guided by EEG or fNIRS

What began as a simple magnetic pulse now sits at the intersection of neuroscience, engineering, AI, and psychiatry.

Hans Berger gave psychiatry EEG.
Anthony Barker gave psychiatry the magnet.
Psychiatrists are now learning to wield both with intention.

rTMS marks the return of biological elegance—healing the brain without harming it.

About the Author

Dr. Srinivas Rajkumar T, MD (AIIMS), DNB, MBA (BITS Pilani)
Senior Consultant Psychiatrist & Neurofeedback Specialist
Mind & Memory Clinic, Apollo Clinic Velachery (Opp. Phoenix Mall)
✉ srinivasaiims@gmail.com 📞 +91-8595155808