Figure 1

Schematic representation of the human cerebral cortex. The magnetic coil, represented as a figure-of-eight device, is placed on top of the cerebral cortex and pulses a magnetic field that induces electrical currents across the six layers of the cerebral cortex (indicated by numbers at left). The excitatory cells (green with blue axons) and the inhibitory cells (gray with black axons) have the potential to be activated at the level of their axons, which contain the highest density of ion channels. The incoming axons from other cortical areas and the thalamus (indicated in red) are also activated. The end result of the magnetic pulse is the synaptic activation of a chain of neurons, which generate feed-forward and feedback loops of excitation and inhibition.