"Slinky" coils for neuromagnetic stimulation.

Future advances in neuromagnetic stimulation depend significantly on the design of coils with improved focality. Although in the absence of internal current sources, no true focusing of magnetically induced currents is possible, improvements in the focality of current concentrations passing through an area of biologic tissue are achievable through variations of the shape, orientation and size of neuromagnetic stimulating coils. The "butterfly" and the "4-leaf" coils are two examples of planar designs which achieve improved focality through centralization of the maximum coil current and peripheral distribution of the return currents. We introduce the "slinky" coil design as a 3-dimensional generalization of the principle of peripheral distribution of return currents and demonstrate its advantages over planar designs.