The study used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of a specific area of the brain – the dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) region of the brain.

Way back in the early 1990s magnets were all the rage for everything from curing warts to rapid learning. I recall having all sorts of magnetic devices – that I used unsuccessfully on a number of issues. In the late 1990s several studies debunked the use of magnets for most of the uses touted earlier. I was not surprised.

Now a new study out of the University of British Columbia, Canada, sheds some light on why magnetism was so popular in the first place – it works! At least for rapid skills learning – and done scientifically.

I think the problem with the earlier methods was in their delivery. The Canadian study used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of a specific area of the brain – the dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) region of the brain (see figure). TMS applies an electromagnetic pulse rather than a solid magnetic field. I think the change in magnetic field is perhaps what makes TMS so effective in this regard.

Still, it is fascinating to me that the imaginative people who first envisioned magnetic therapies were on to something and now some equally ingenious people are making some headway into how to make magnetism truly useful therapeutically. Cool.

The study is online at http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2202/10/72/abstract
and in pdf format at http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2202-10-72.pdf