Feeling well is more than simply not being depressed or anxious. Everyday well-being is shaped by mood, energy, motivation, emotional balance and how effectively we adapt to the demands around us.
This raises an interesting question: if TMS can modulate brain networks involved in mood and emotional regulation, can repeated stimulation also influence how healthy people feel and function?
Mood is a brain-network function
Mood does not originate from a single “mood center” in the brain. Instead, it emerges from dynamic interactions across distributed cortical and subcortical circuits.
Several networks contribute to this process. Emotional processing relies on regions like the amygdala and anterior cingulate cortex. Reward valuation involves the ventral striatum and orbitofrontal cortex. Cognitive control is largely governed by the prefrontal cortex, while self-referential processing draws on the default mode network, including the medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex.
These systems are richly interconnected. Mood is thought to reflect the net output of their coordinated activity (or, in mood disorders, their dysregulation) rather than the function of any single brain region acting alone.
Within this broader architecture, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) stands out as a critical node. It supports executive function and helps regulate emotional and limbic circuitry from the top down. Structural and functional abnormalities in this region have been linked to mood disorders such as major depressive disorder.
The DLPFC is also relatively accessible from the scalp surface, and it maintains strong connectivity to deeper limbic structures. For these reasons, it has become one of the most extensively studied targets in TMS research, including established clinical protocols for major depressive disorder.
Can TMS influence mood in healthy people?
Schaller et al. randomized 44 healthy young men to nine sessions of active or sham high-frequency rTMS over the left DLPFC. Beck Depression Inventory scores decreased significantly in the active group, whereas they did not change significantly with sham. However, most visual-analogue ratings of mood, enjoyment and energy did not show corresponding long-term differences. The result is therefore interesting but should not be reduced to the idea that TMS simply “makes healthy people happier.” [1]
Moulier et al. later investigated ten daily sessions of 10-Hz left-DLPFC rTMS in 20 healthy adults using a randomized double-blind design. The study did not find significant between-group effects on the main clinical mood scales or emotion-recognition task. It did, however, report better self-rated adaptation to daily life in the active group, which the authors interpreted as a possible positive effect on quality of life. [2]
The broader healthy-volunteer literature is mixed. A systematic review by Remue et al. concluded that a single session of non-invasive neurostimulation does not reliably change self-reported mood in healthy individuals. This distinction is useful: TMS should not be framed as an instant mood boost, and repeated-session findings remain limited and protocol-specific. [3]
From stimulation to adaptation
The more interesting scientific story may be how repeated stimulation interacts with the brain’s capacity to adapt. Repetitive TMS can induce after-effects in cortical excitability that outlast the stimulation period. Experimental work also links repetitive magnetic stimulation with synaptic, molecular and BDNF-related processes associated with neuroplasticity. [4]
That does not mean that “activated neuroplasticity” automatically creates a better mood. Instead, neuroplasticity provides a biological framework for understanding how repeated modulation of networks involved in emotional regulation could lead to effects that persist beyond an individual stimulation session. [4]
The current evidence in healthy populations is still small and inconsistent. Nevertheless, studies of repeated prefrontal stimulation suggest that mood-related measures and aspects of everyday adaptation can be influenced under some experimental conditions. That makes mood and well-being an interesting research direction. [1-4]
References
[1] Schaller G, Lenz B, Friedrich K, et al. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation influences mood in healthy male volunteers. J Psychiatr Res. 2011;45(9):1178-1183. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires. 2011.02.006.
[2] Moulier V, Gaudeau-Bosma C, Isaac C, et al. Effect of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on mood in healthy subjects. Socioaffect Neurosci Psychol. 2016; 6:29672. doi:10.3402/snp.v6.29672.
[3] Remue J, Baeken C, De Raedt R. Does a single neurostimulation session really affect mood in healthy individuals? A systematic review. Neuropsychologia. 2016; 85:184-198. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia. 2016.03.012.
[4] Hoogendam JM, Ramakers GMJ, Di Lazzaro V. Physiology of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation of the human brain. Brain Stimul. 2010;3(2):95-118. doi:10.1016/j.brs.2009.10.005.
