How dTMS is Restoring Balance to Stroke Patients

New Research Shows that Brain Stimulation Might Just be the Breakthrough Rehabilitation Has Been Waiting For

By Jess Wight | June 10, 2026

“It's really incredible to see that the brain is still capable of rewiring itself long after stroke. Many of our participants had their stroke several years ago.”

Trevor Low, MD/PhD student at the University of Calgary discussing results of his 2025 study into the effects of dTMS on language therapy in stroke patients

New research has emerged demonstrating exciting improvements for stroke patients following deep transcranial magnetic stimulation (dTMS) treatment.

A stroke is a medical emergency caused by a rupture or blockage of the blood vessels to the brain, causing loss of brain function. The World Stroke Organization’s Global Report 2025 states that as the second leading cause of death and third leading cause of mortality and disability combined. They are also incredibly common: 1 in 4 people will experience a stroke in their lifetime.

This prevalence highlights the urgent need for successful rehabilitation programs, as the lasting side effects can be very debilitating. The long-term effects of a stroke can span both physical and psychological domains:

o   physical consequences range from motor and balance dysfunction to seizures and paralysis

o   psychological consequences can include language and communication impairment, and mood and personality changes.

According to Public Health Canada, around 878,500 adult Canadians have experienced a stroke, with data showing a steady increase in prevalence over the last two decades.

Chart showing the prevalence of stroke in Canada as reported by the Canadian Chronic Disease Surveillance System (CCDSS)

Current rehabilitation treatments include a mix of physical therapies, speech and language therapy (SLT), and psychological counselling. While research shows these modalities successfully improve the quality of life across all three areas of impact, there are significant limitations.

This is where dTMS represents an exciting breakthrough. New evidence suggests it could offer comparable relief for long-term effects while demanding far less time and energy than traditional programs.

Multiple studies have already trialed traditional repetitive TMS (rTMS) to aid both physical and speech impairments for stroke patients. A systematic review evaluating more than 250 stroke patients across 10 clinical trials displayed significant improvement in muscle function, walking ability and balance following only 2-3 weeks of rTMS therapy. Considering that traditional physical therapy can take years with slow progression, achieving visible improvements in as little as a fortnight of treatment could completely revolutionize rehabilitation programs. Despite the documented successes of rTMS, new evidence suggests dTMS yields far superior clinical results – a distinction that offers even greater promise for reshaping recovery protocols.

Traditional rTMS is a type of brain stimulation which uses a standard ‘figure-8’ coil. In contrast, dTMS utilizes an advanced ‘H-coil’, which offers several distinct advantages:

o   Deeper Penetration: the H-coil reaches deeper brain structures that the figure-8 coil cannot access.

o   Broader Targeting: it stimulates a wider area of neurons, significantly reducing the likelihood of targeting errors.

o   Comfort and Stability: unlike the figure-8 coil, the H-coil is fixed inside a comfortable helmet, ensuring precise placement throughout the session.

These features suggest dTMS is a more efficacious treatment option. This was recently confirmed by an independent study comparing the two technologies in patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), where dTMS outperformed rTMS across all clinical measures. Given these findings, it would appear logical to assume the same results could be observed in stroke rehabilitation.   

This assumption was put to the test in a new 2025 study directly comparing the two types of brain stimulation. Whilst both coil types improved motor dysfunction in a trial involving 50 stroke patients, researchers noted that “dTMS may provide more facilitative and accelerative effects”, highlighting its superiority as a valuable treatment option.

A second newly published study from late 2025 drew the same conclusions. After just four weeks of treatment, 66 patients exhibited significant gait and balance improvements. dTMS again demonstrated “significantly greater improvements”, which researchers attributed to the dTMS H-coil’s ability to penetrate deeper for more effective activation of the affected brain areas.

These discoveries suggest dTMS could be significantly helpful along side rehabilitation programs, paving the way for faster recovery and better quality of life.

Furthermore, the reported benefits of TMS are not limited to physiological symptoms; it is also showing remarkable success in treating language and communication deficits too. One study reports that a single session of stimulation with the H-coil significantly improves performance in a picture naming task– this is a standard metric used to measure language recovery in patients with aphasia (a language disorder often seen in stroke patients).

“We are very excited by the promising results of this non-invasive therapy as a complimentary treatment to speech and language therapy to help people recover words and communicate effectively poststroke… there's very little data on whether the brain can continue to recover and repair itself to make improvements in speech. Our findings show it can."

Dr Sean Dukelow, MD, PhD, University of Calgary, discussing the promising findings of his student’s new research examining dTMS in aphasic stroke patients  

Overall, the has been an influx of real-world data points to a bright future. By integrating dTMS into already robust rehabilitation programs we can ease the global stroke burden and drastically improve the quality of life for stroke survivors.