A Reproducible Safety Assessment Model for Concurrent Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation with Implanted Intracranial Electroencephalography Electrodes

Published online October 17, 2026. A laboratory model found very small electrode movement, limited heating and electrical measures below safety thresholds under the tested conditions. This supports a reproducible testing approach, not a declaration that every TMS and implanted-electrode combination is safe in patients.

Chang A, Michiels J, Campos G, Nho Y, Duprat R, Vardalakis N, Koluda A, Qiu L, Choi W, Seilheimer R, Ganguly TM, Hamilton RH, Barbosa DA, Scangos K, Oathes D, Halpern C, Vitale F.
Brain Stimulation · Publication date: 2026-10-17
Added to site: 2026-10-19
DOI: 10.1016/j.brs.2026.103238

First published online October 17, 2026. Added to Neurofeedback.com October 19, 2026.

Modalities

TMS, Intracranial EEG, sEEG

Clinical focus

Implanted-electrode safety, Bench testing, Measurement framework

Population

No human participants; conductive agarose phantom implanted with clinical-grade platinum sEEG electrodes

Sample

Bench model tested with single-pulse TMS, 1 to 50 Hz rTMS and intermittent theta-burst stimulation

Intervention / method

Investigators measured electrode displacement, temperature, induced voltage, secondary current and charge density during multiple stimulation conditions, including conditions above typical clinical ranges.

Comparator

Observed measurements were compared with established displacement, temperature and electrical-safety thresholds across coil distances and stimulation conditions

Clinician summary

Maximum transient lead displacement was 10.99 micrometers, the maximum one-second mean displacement was 16.27 micrometers and the primary temperature-series maximum was 0.073 degrees C. Induced voltage and charge density remained below the cited safety limits and decayed with coil distance.

How to interpret the findings

Conductive-phantom bench study with no living tissue, participant movement, postoperative variability or clinical adverse-event observation. Findings apply only to the tested electrodes, placements, coil geometry, distances and protocols. Full methods, threshold provenance and device-specific generalizability were not independently assessed from the abstract.

Equipment and disclosures

The abstract reports clinical-grade platinum sEEG electrodes, high-speed video, fiber-optic temperature probes, an oscilloscope and intracranial EEG hardware without complete model or manufacturer detail. No BrainMaster attribution.

The authors declared no competing financial interests or personal relationships. Funding was not identified in the checked abstract or Crossref record. No indexed correction, retraction or concern relation appeared in the retained PubMed or Crossref records; this is a bounded check. AI-assisted review.

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