Brain Stimulation Special Interest Group (BS-SIG)

Working Group Leaders

Welcome to the Brain Stimulation Special Interest Group (BS-SIG), formerly called the Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation SIG (NBS-SIG), founded in 2018. In order to further extend our membership interests, in late 2021, IFCN broadened the NBS-SIG’s original name to Brain Stimulation SIG (BS-SIG). Professor Andres Lozano and Professor Sarah Hollingsworth (Holly) Lisanby have kindly agreed to join Professor Professor Ulf Ziemann as Working Group Co-leaders of the SIG to extend the focus into neurosurgical and psychiatric topics.

History of the SIG

 In 2018, the Executive Committee of  IFCN  committed Prof. Yoshikazu Ugawa (Department of Neuro-regeneration, Fukushima Medical University, Japan) and Prof. Walter Paulus (Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, University of Göttingen, Germany) to lead activities of a new Special Interest Group (SIG) on non-invasive brain stimulation (NBS) techniques, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), transcranial direct and alternating current stimulation (tDCS, tACS) as well as static magnetic stimulation, ultrasound stimulation and others, with in the beginning around 50 international experts for the development of new stimulation methods or new clinical application of NBS, and also the propaganda of established techniques of NBS (CMCT, SICI, SIF, SICF, CBI and others) in Clinical Neurophysiology. During the 31st International Congress of Clinical Neurophysiology (ICCN2018) held in Washington DC (USA, May 4, 2018), a small session of the SIG on NBS focused on the spinal cord plasticity induction methods. Two speakers gave presentations about spinal cord plasticity induction.

Activities & Accomplishments

• Held a SIG meeting at ICCN 2024 in Jakarta
• Held a virtual meeting of SIG working group leaders in December 2024
• The BS- SIG will support the IFCN- EMEAC Teaching Course : “From research to clinical practice: Transcranial Magnetic and Electrical Stimulation”, Göttingen, Germany, March 06 - 08, 2025; several teaching courses/lectures will be provided by BS-SIG members
• The BS-SIG will organize the workshop: “Safety of low intensity transcranial electrical stimulation”, Munich, Germany, June 12-13, 2025. The results of the workshop will lead to a consensus paper on TES safety, to be published in Clinical Neurophysiology
• The BS-SIG will endorse the Consensus Paper: “Clinical Utility of TMS-EEG” authored by approximately 50 key opinion leaders in this field. The work will be an update of the Consensus Paper by Tremblay et al. 2019, Clin Neurophysiol 2019;130:802-44. It is planned to submit the paper by June 2025 to Clinical Neurophysiology
• Planning to hold an in-person meeting at ICCN 2026 in Cartagena, Colombia

Publications

Consensus review and considerations on TMS to treat depression: A comprehensive update endorsed by the National Network of Depression Centers, the Clinical TMS Society, and the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology - ScienceDirect

Trapp NT, Purgianto A, Taylor JJ, Singh MK, Oberman LM, Mickey BJ, et al. Consensus review and considerations on TMS to treat depression: A comprehensive update endorsed by the National Network of Depression Centers, the Clinical TMS Society, and the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Clin Neurophysiol 2024;170:206-33.

A practical guide to transcranial ultrasonic stimulation from the IFCN-endorsed ITRUSST consortium - ScienceDirect

Murphy, K.R., Nandi, T., Kop, B., Osada, T., Lueckel, M., N’Djin, W.A., Caulfield, K.A., Fomenko, A., Siebner, H.R., Ugawa, Y., Verhagen, L., Bestmann, S., Martin, E., Pauly, K.B., Fouragnan, E., Bergmann, T.O., A practical guide to transcranial ultrasonic stimulation from the IFCN-endorsed ITRUSST consortium, Clinical Neurophysiology (2025), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinph.2025.01.004

If you are interested in joining the Brain Stimulation SIG, please email ulf.ziemann@uni-tuebingen.de, Andres.Lozano@uhn.ca, or sarah.lisanby@nih.gov