Psychologists at Lancaster teamed up with the Universities of Birmingham, Bangor, Kent, and Nottingham for a three-day workshop on Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the experimental technique, and to look to the future of TMS in psychological study.

The TMS technique – pioneered by Professor Anthony Barker, who was present at the event – uses electromagnetic induction to temporarily and safely alter brain function, which can be used to study how different regions of the brain work during a variety of psychological processes. TMS is non-invasive and allows psychologists to study how disrupting neural activity can impact a wide range of cognitive activities such as memory, word processing, and facial recognition. TMS also has number of medical applications and has been used to successfully treat mental health disorders including depression and anxiety. Dr Nuttall at Lancaster University is currently using TMS to investigate if it can also help people with hearing loss.

The TMS@40 event, which was held between 23^rd-25^th April in Birmingham, was organised by members of the TMSMultiLab including Lancaster’s Dr Helen Nuttall, lead of Psychology’s Neuroscience and Neurocognition research group. The workshop encouraged TMS researchers to come together for a three-day “hackathon” style event, and work together over the course of the workshop to generate ideas for a paper entitled “The experimental psychology of transcranial magnetic stimulation: A consensus paper”.

The event also featured 3 hour TMS training crash courses covering the basics of using TMS in experimentation as well as a number of keynotes, including one from Professor Barker on his invention of TMS , and another from Dr Charlotte Pennington advocating for “Open Science” practices – a movement which encourages academics to ensure their research is reliable, transparent and accessible to all. Additionally, TMS@40 also featured poster sessions, in which all researchers were encouraged to present on their latest work.

The meeting was well-attended, with over 45 attendees present over the course of the event and all the TMS training courses fully booked. On the success of TMS@40, Dr Nuttall commented: “It was a fantastic event and great to share knowledge with so many different researchers to discuss best practice in TMS research. Without a doubt, further integration of open science practices with TMS will serve to further strengthen the technique. I’m excited to see where the next 40 years takes us!”