MAGIC: An open-source MATLAB toolbox for external control of transcranial magnetic stimulation devices

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is widely used in basic and clinical research. As long as standard protocols with fixed-stimulation parameters are used, it is sufficient to pre-define those parameters manually via the control interface of the TMS device. However, there are two scenarios for which stimulation parameters need to be changed automatically from trial-to-trial: a priori randomization (e.g., intermingling single- and paired-pulse conditions to prevent order effects) and ad hoc adjustment (e.g., iteratively adjusting stimulation parameters based on past events or current brain state). Luckily, most TMS devices allow the remote control of stimulation parameters, as well as the retrieval of the current device status, via bidirectional communication through a serial or USB port. We introduce the MAGIC (MAGnetic stimulator Interface Controller) toolbox (Fig. 1A and B), which offers a MATLAB-based unified framework for the simultaneous control of multiple stimulators from different manufacturers through a computer serial port. The MAGIC toolbox complements existing TMS external control toolboxes, such as MagPy which is written in the Python programming language [ [1] McNair N.A. MagPy: a Python toolbox for controlling Magstim transcranial magnetic stimulators. J Neurosci Meth. 2017; 276: 33-37https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneumeth.2016.11.006 Crossref PubMed Scopus (8) Google Scholar ] or the RAPID2 Toolbox for MATLAB [ [2] Abrahamyan A. Clifford C.W. Ruzzoli M. Phillips D. Arabzadeh E. Harris J.A. Accurate and rapid estimation of phosphene thresholds (REPT). PLoS One. 2011; 6: e22342https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0022342 PONE-D-10–01806 [pii] Crossref PubMed Scopus (0) Google Scholar ].