Training in the practice of noninvasive brain stimulation: Recommendations from an IFCN committee.

As the field of noninvasive brain stimulation (NIBS) expands, there is a growing need for comprehensive guidelines on training practitioners in the safe and effective administration of NIBS techniques in their various research and clinical applications. This article provides recommendations on the structure and content of this training. Three different types of practitioners are considered (Technicians, Clinicians, and Scientists), to attempt to cover the range of education and responsibilities of practitioners in NIBS from the laboratory to the clinic. Basic or core competencies and more advanced knowledge and skills are discussed, and recommendations offered regarding didactic and practical curricular components. We encourage individual licensing and governing bodies to implement these guidelines.

Informations de copyright

Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Declaration of Competing Interest The content of this manuscript is solely theresponsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of any of the institutions involved or any of the funding agencies and bodies. Peter J. Fried has nothing to disclose with regard to this manuscript. Emiliano Santarnecchi serves on the scientific advisory boards for Neuroelectrics, EBNeuro and Neurocare. He is listed as an inventor on several issued and pending patents on the application of noninvasive brain stimulation in patients with dementia and brain tumors. Andrea Antal serves as a paid consultant for NeuroConn, Ilmenau, Germany and Savir GmbH, Magdeburg, Germany. She is supported by the State of Lower Saxony, Germany (76251-12-7/19 (ZN 3456)). David Bartres-Faz has nothing to disclose with regard to this manuscript. Sven Bestmann has nothing to disclose with regard to this manuscript. Linda L. Carpenter is supportedby the National Institute of General Medical Sciencesof the National Institutes of Health under Award Number P20GM130452 (Core Resources of the Butler Hospital COBRE Center for Neuromodulation). She has received consulting income from Neuronetics, Nexstim, Janssen, AffectNeuro, and Sage Therapeutics. She has research support from Neuronetics, Neosync, AffectNeuro, and Nexstim. Pablo Celnik has nothing to disclose with regard to this manuscript. Dylan Edwards has nothing to disclose with regard to this manuscript. Faranak Farzan has nothing to disclose with regard to this manuscript. Shirley Fecteau is a deputy editor of Brain Stimulation and an editor of Scientific Reports.She is regular faculty of yearly intensive mini-fellowships on TMS and tCS offered through Harvard Continuing Medical Education. Mark S. George is an unpaid consultant to Brainsway, Neuronetics, and Magstim. He has received loaned equipment or research grants from Mecta, Brainsway, Magstim, Magventure. He is a paid consultant to Neuralief. He does not own equity in any device company. He is the editor in chief of Brain Stimulation, with a stipend from Elsevier. Bin He has nothing to disclose with regard to this manuscript. Yun-Hee Kim has nothing to disclose with regard to this manuscript. Letizia Leocani is currently shortlisted for the European Commission expert panel on Medical Devices and in vitro diagnostic medical devices for Neurology. Sarah H. Lisanby is inventor on a patent for TMS technology, unrelated to the topic presented here, with no royalties.The opinions expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not reflect the views of the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services, or the United States government. Colleen Loo has received competitive grant funding from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council for brain stimulation research. Bruce Luber has nothing to disclose with regard to this manuscript. Michael A. Nitsche serves on the scientific advisory boards for Neuroelectrics and NeuroDevice. Walter Paulus serves as a member of the scientific advisory board of Precisis AG. Simone Rossi serves as a consultant for EB-Neuro and Neurocare Italy group. Paolo M. Rossini has nothing to disclose with regard to this manuscript. John Rothwell has nothing to disclose with regard to this manuscript. Alexander T. Sack serves as head of the scientific advisory board for AlphaSys Brain Technologies BV. He is founder of Neurowear Medical BV, and Director of the European Clinical TMS Certification Course (www.tmscourse.eu). Gregor Thut serves as a Section Editor for European Journal of Neuroscience and Brain Topography and as an Associate Editor for several Frontiers journals (Brain Imaging and Stimulation, Consciousness Research, Perception Science). Yoshikazu Ugawa has nothing to disclose with regard to this manuscript. Ulf Ziemann has received grants from European Research Council (ERC), German Research Foundation (DFG), German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Ministry of Research and Arts of the Federal State of Baden-Würrtemberg (MWK), Bristol Myers Squibb, Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, Servier, Biogen Idec GmbH, and personal fees from Bayer Vital GmbH, Pfizer GmbH, CorTec GmbH, all not related to this work. Mark Hallett was supported by the NINDS Intramural Program. He is an inventor of patents held by NIH for an immunotoxin for the treatment of focal movement disorders and the H-coil for magnetic stimulation; in relation to the latter, he has received license fee payments from the NIH (from Brainsway). He is on the Medical Advisory Boards of CALA Health and Brainsway. He has research grants from Allergan for studies of methods to inject botulinum toxins, Medtronic, Inc. for a study of DBS for dystonia, and CALA Health for studies of a device to suppress tremor. Alvaro Pascual-Leone serves on the scientific advisory boards for Starlab Neuroscience, Neuroelectrics, Magstim, Magventure, MedRhythms, and Cognito. He listed as an inventor on several issued and pending patents on the real-time integration of transcranial magnetic stimulation with electroencephalography and magnetic resonance imaging, and novel methods for transcranial electric stimulation. He is co-founder of Linus Health and TI Solutions A.G. He serves as associate editor for Annals of Neurology. He is co-director of yearly intensive mini-fellowships on TMS and tCS offered through Harvard Continuing Medical Education.