Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) – a non-invasive brain stimulation technique that influences activity in specific areas of the brain – is widely used by researchers to better understand how the brain functions and is also emerging as a promising treatment for a wide range of psychiatric and neurological conditions.
Until now, however, researchers have lacked a common way of reporting findings from studies in this field, making it difficult to compare results and advance our understanding of the brain and the development of new treatments.
A new project led by Orsolya Székely , a Psychology PhD student at the University of Bath (UK), and Dr Nicholas Holmes from the University of Birmingham (UK) is set to change that.
Ms Székely and Dr Holmes brought together researchers from 21 institutions working in the field of TMS to develop a shared method for reporting the details of TMS experiments. The collaboration resulted in a new assessment tool – the first of its kind – that helps researchers report studies more clearly and consistently, making findings easier to evaluate and replicate.
The Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Reporting Assessment Tool (TMS-RAT) – described today in the journal Brain Stimulation – helps researchers assess whether studies have reported key experimental details clearly and completely. For example, it checks whether a paper reports participants' age and sex, the type of TMS device used, stimulation intensity, coil position and experimental procedures.
Good patient care requires stronger research
TMS is used both to study brain function and increasingly to treat conditions including treatment-resistant depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), chronic pain and smoking cessation. Researchers are also investigating its potential in stroke rehabilitation and other neurological conditions.
During a TMS procedure, a magnetic coil placed against the scalp delivers pulses that stimulate nerve cells in targeted brain regions. Researchers can study how the brain works or investigate changes in brain activity produced by stimulation.
Although the technique has been used for more than 40 years, important questions remain about how the brain responds to different forms of stimulation, why findings sometimes differ between studies, which patients benefit most, and which treatment approaches are most effective. As the field continues to grow, researchers increasingly need a consistent way of reporting studies so that findings can be compared and built upon.
With research groups reporting their methods and findings differently, it is difficult for scientists to compare studies, understand why results may differ and build the robust evidence needed to advance brain research and bring the most effective treatments to patients.
The authors say the new tool – developed and refined over several stages, with reliability and usability tested throughout – addresses this challenge by providing clear guidance on how TMS studies should be reported. This will make it easier for researchers to compare findings across studies, combine evidence and build a clearer understanding of which approaches work best in research and clinical settings.
Explaining the need for the new reporting framework, Ms Székely said: “Within the area of brain stimulation, which is increasingly used in both research and clinical contexts, there are a lot of contradictory findings.
“One barrier to understanding these contradictions is that researchers use a range of different protocols, but we are often unable to compare them properly because there is no shared standard for reporting the relevant experimental details.
“This means it can be difficult to determine whether apparently conflicting results reflect genuine scientific differences or simply variations in how studies were conducted and documented.
“By making it easier to compare studies and combine evidence from different research groups, we hope this tool will help researchers to better build on each other’s findings and support progress in brain stimulation research.”
A project driven by necessity
The TMS project was carried out without official funding, without a formal institutional structure, and mainly by early-career researchers. In Ms Székely’s case, the work was conducted independently of her PhD research.
The new tool is freely available through the project website, tms-rat.org, where researchers can use it to generate comprehensive methods sections and assess reporting completeness in existing studies.
Dr Holmes, from the School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences at Birmingham, said: “This tool will really help researchers to combine the results from multiple independent studies into larger, more informative meta-analyses. No single scientific study is ever definitive and only results that replicate across laboratories should be built upon or applied clinically. The TMS-RAT provides a set of tools to make meta-analysis easier and better.”
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Development and validation of the transcranial magnetic stimulation reporting assessment tool (TMS-RAT)
21-Jul-2026