Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

[Enthalpy]

...influence brains with an external device... trick people who think they're telepathic. If it works, the "telepathics" weren't actually doing it, they were just attributing the effects to themselves rather than an outside variable.

 

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation isn't accurate enough for that purpose, if I understand properly its capabilities.

• The induced field spreads over 50mm * 40mm or more, which covers more than a specialized zone (vision, audition, decision...) of the brains, and certainly more than a precise function of such a zone (say, bending the second joint of the left forefinger, as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) shows such a degree of brain specialization).
• Thoughts must result from sequences in brain activity and not just the activation of one area, even if it could be targeted accurately.
• TMS seems to inhibit only the activity of the target zone when acting on it, and strengthen its work in the future. That's less than suggesting a precise idea. It's little more than the sought effects of an electroshock, with more adequate means that have fewer unwanted effects, and vaguely targeted.
• Up to now, TMS works only at contact distance, and this can't improve with an essentially magnetic field. My latest (=electro-magnetic) version here but improves that, as it needs an antenna as wide as distant to obtain a ~20mm target zone.

 

Improving the bad field concentration has been a constant desire for TMS since TMS began to work 30 years ago, and this thread tends to that right now, in addition to making the apparatus more convenient.

[MonDie]

Okay, then you cannot test my hypothesis. Thanks.

Edited December 9, 2012 by Mondays Assignment: Die

[Enthalpy]

A V antenna is wideband, and it can produce naturally the asymmetric pulse.



The source injects a current whose longitudinal components in both arms of the V compensate another's effect, and transverse components add. As only a fraction of the current radiates, the V antenna is much a transmission line; its line impedance should better be kept uniform so the current is as well: the conductors on the sketch are thicker where wider apart - or they can be sheet of variable width, or several wires packed closely at near the source and spread at the far end.

Inject a current pulse that raises in 70 ps for instance - easier than the previous 30 ps. It propagates in the conductors essentially at the medium's transverse electromagnetic speed, say 350 ps for some 100mm length, so the A field (magnetic vector potential) emitted near the source arrives at the on-axis target retarded by that additional delay, while near the tips, the field is emitted later but without the additional delay. The radiation cumulates over the length, with the net effect on-axis to radiate a 70 ps pulse as would the same current do over the width of the antenna, but over a broad band. Off-axis, the delays compensate badly so radiation is weaker. This is very similar to an ultra-relativistic particle that radiates when deflected. If the V is 2*10 mm wide for instance over 100 mm, the discrepancy is less than 2 ps.

After some 350 ps for 100 mm length, the pulse arrived at the open conductor tips is reflected and the current stops, beginning at the tips and extending to the source over the 100 mm in 350 ps more. Because the reflected pulse travels away from the target, its effect created near the source arrives at the target 2*350 ps later than the effect created near the tips, or 700 ps, so the A field takes this time to decrease. The induced electric field, which is the variation speed or A, is made asymmetric here, again more easily than with the butt dipoles.

Other antennas have a wide band (log-periodic, cigar) or rather wide (helical, Uda-Yagi...) but the V has naturally the uniform propagation time that takes care of a pulse's shape.

-----

The electronics can preload the antenna and discharge it with the 70 ps current rise time in a switch transistor near the antenna, where the current lasts for 700 ps - or the pulse can be produced by other wideband means. A propagation line can also reach a more distant component, say one output of an integrated circuit, but not too far since this prolongs the conduction time and worsens the achievable repetition rate. A distributed amplifier is an option.

An array of such antennas and sources brings the needed signal strength to the target. Arranging them on a section of a sphere remains good, and as the V antennas are much more independent, electronic steering and beam forming fits better here, especially if the integrated circuits can make the variable delays. Now the focus can follow the patient's movements.

Or if one (or few) source has enough power, a single antenna can feed a concentrating reflector or lens. With individual or collective lens, the antenna V can be wider and still focus to a narrow target.

Immersing the array in a water-like or brains-like material brings the advantages described for the butt dipoles. Electronic steering eases the compensation of diffraction at the skull to achieve full resolution in the very permittive medium: very few mm, even deep in the brains.

Marc Schaefer, aka Enthalpy

[Enthalpy]

The V antenna is more directive than a dipole, hence the wave that leaves it is wider than a half wavelength. Consequently, synthetic beam formation alone can't achieve the narrowest focus; something like a lens, individual or collective, is necessary, possibly in addition to phasing the array.

[Enthalpy]

A lightning that strikes the ground induces electric fields much like TMS but stronger. Take for example a 50kA discharge, rising in 5µs and falling in 200µs: the leading edge induces fields like 5000V/m (TMS 100V/m), the trailing edge is 40* longer and weaker than the leading one (TMS 10*), the strong edge lasts for 5µs (usual TMS 100µs up to now), but the duration*field corresponds to 50kA (TMS 7kA * few turns).

 

Lightning induces a field to a big distance, limited by the length of the discharge, or of its last straight section.

 

This could explain many observations by people who were near a lightning strike, for instance:

• Not hear the strike - if the brains' function was inhibited.
• Be thrown to a wall, despite windows are not smashed: stimulation of the muscles through a field in the brains or the spine.

Marc Schaefer, aka Enthalpy

[Enthalpy]

Lightning as a source of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation had been proposed in 2008, hence before my last post here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning#Transcranial_magnetic_stimulation

whether this shall explain ball lightning (new observations exist meanwhile) as a mere perception is not my point here.