A brief history of magnetic stimulation

Excellent reviews of history of magnetic stimulation are given by Anthony Barker (J Clin Neurophysiol. 8:26-37, 1991) and by Leslie Geddes (J Clin Neurophysiol. 8:3-9, 1991).

References to historical papers are given below the table.

1771	Luigi Galvani	animal electricity
1819	Hans Christian Oersted (1777-1851)	electromagnetism
1831	Michael Faraday (1791-1851)	electromagnetic induction
1833	Duchenne de Boulogne	stimulation of muscles with surface electrodes
1853	Hermann von Helmholtz	measurement of speed of nerve impulses with electrical stimulation and mechanical twitch recorder; pioneering discoveries in electromagnetism (reciprocity etc.)
1874	Roberts Bartholow	excitability of the human brain while stimulating the exposed cortex in a patient with a large cranial defect
1896	Arsenne d'Arsonval	"phosphenes and vertigo, and in some persons, syncope" when the subjects head was placed inside an induction coil
1902 1910 1911 1946	Beer Silvanus Thompson Dunlap Walsh	visual sensations, i.e., magnetophosphenes: "a faint flickering illumination, colorless or a blush tint"
1911	Magnusson & Stevens	"when the direct current was initiated, a luminous horizontal bar was perceived moving downward"
1947	Barlow & al.	"as to the locus of excitation, we believe that this is retinal"
1959	Kolin	first to stimulate magnetically nerves (a frog sciatic-nerve)
1965	Bickford & Fremming	first to stimulate the human nerves magnetically using harmonic magnetic fields
1970 1970 1973	Maass & Asa Irwin P. Å. Öberg	muscle twitches in animals and human subjects
1976	Polson, Barker & Freeston	stimulation with brief magnetic field pulses and first demonstration of peripheral nerve stimulation with simultaneous electromyographic recordings
1980	Merton & Morton	non-invasive brain stimulation with scalp electrodes
1985	Barker & al.	non-invasive, painless, cortical stimulation with magnetic fields
1984 1988	David Cohen Shoogo Ueno	the idea and realization of the figure-of-eight coil
1989	RQ Cracco, VE Amassian, PJ Maccabee & JB Cracco	recording of magnetically evoked cortical responses from the scalp with electrodes placed on the other side of the head
1987/88	Cadwell Laboratories Inc.	repetitive stimulation with water-cooled coil

References to historical works:

1. d'Arsonval, A. Dispositifs pour la mesure des courants alternatifs de toutes fréquences. C.R.Soc.Biol.(Paris) 3:450-457, 1896.
2. Beer, B. Uber das Auftrafen einer objective Lichtempfindung in magnetischen Felde. Klin Wochenschr 15:108-109, 1902.
3. Thompson, S.P. A physiological effect of an alternating magnetic field. Proc R Soc Lond [Biol] B82:396-399, 1910.
4. Dunlap, K. Visual sensations from the alternating magnetic field. Science 33:68-71, 1911.
5. Magnusson, C.E. and Stevens, H.C. Visual sensations created by a magnetic field. Am J Physiol 29:124-136, 1911.
6. Walsh, P. Magnetic stimulation of the human retina. Fed Proc 5(Part 2):109-110, 1946.
7. Barlow, H.B., Kohn, H.L., and Walsh, E.G. Visual sensations aroused by magnetic fields. Am J Physiol 148:372-375, 1947.
8. Kolin, A., Brill, N.Q., and Broberg, P.J. Stimulation of irritable tissues by means of an alternating magnetic field. Proc Soc Exp Biol Med 102:251-253, 1959.
9. Bickford, R.G. and Fremming, B.D. Neural stimulation by pulsed magnetic fields in animals and man. Digest of the 6th International Conference on Medical Electronics and Biological Engineering. Tokyo. Abstract 7-6, 1965.
10. Irwin, D.D., Rush, S., Evering, R., Lepeschkin, D., Montgomery, B., and Weggel, R. Stimulation of cardiac muscle by a time-varying magnetic field. IEEE Trans Magn 6:321-322, 1970.
11. Maass, J. and Asa, M. Contactless nerve stimulation and signal detection by inductive transducer. IEEE Trans Magn 6:322-326, 1970.
12. Öberg, P.Å. Magnetic stimulation of nerve tissue. Med & Biol Eng & Comput 11:55-64, 1973.
13. Merton, P.A. and Morton, H.B. Stimulation of the cerebral cortex in the intact human subject. Nature 285:227, 1980.
14. Polson, M.J.R., Barker, A.T., and Freeston, I.L. Stimulation of nerve trunks with time-varying magnetic fields. Med & Biol Eng & Comput 20:243-244, 1982.
15. Cohen, D. Feasibility of a magnetic stimulator for the brain. In Biomagnetism: applications and theory. Editors: Weinberg, H., Stroink, G., and Katila, T. Pergamon press, p. 466-470, 1984.
16. Barker, A.T., Jalinous, R., and Freeston, I. Non-invasive magnetic stimulation of the human motor cortex. Lancet 1:1106-1107, 1985.
17. Ueno, S., Tashiro, T., and Harada, K. Localized stimulation of neural tissue in the brain by means of a paired configuration of time-varying magnetic fields. J Appl. Physics 64:5862-5864, 1988.
18. Cracco, R.Q., Amassian, V.E., Maccabee, P.J., and Cracco, J.B. Comparison of human transcallosal responses evoked by magnetic coil and electrical stimulation. Electroenceph clin Neurophysiol 74:417-424, 1989.