Orientationally Selective micro-Coil Design of Intracortical Magnetic Neurostimulation

Neurostimulation development is significant for neuroscience research and neurological disease therapy. Compared to conventional electrical neurostimulation methods, magnetic neurostimulation offers better performance in terms of orientational selectivity. This paper presents a feasibility study of intracortical micro-coil design for high-resolution and high selectivity magnetic neurostimulation. We have proposed and simulated two novel micro-coil designs (‘half-V-shape’ coil, and double-loop rectangular coil) using finite element method in COMSOL Multiphysics. The simulations results show that the ‘half-V-shape’ coil and double-loop rectangular coils have selectivity ratios of 1.10 and 1.29 respectively. Since it is still unclear of how to create selectivity in magnetic neurostimulation, our modellings will provide guidance for future selective micro-magnetic neurostimulation coil design development.