The Philadelphia Theta Burst Project: A novel fMRI-guided electric field modeling dataset with reliability metrics

Abstract Recent neuromodulation studies suggest that theta burst stimulation (TBS) applied to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) can influence neural circuits involved in cognitive control and emotion-related processing, with relevance for psychiatric disorders. However, large-scale datasets characterizing variability, reliability, and multimodal neural responses to TBS remain limited. To address this gap, we established the Philadelphia Theta Burst Project, a dataset of 100 healthy participants who completed 4 fMRI sessions following cumulatively increasing doses of intermittent or continuous TBS, with participants randomized to one protocol or the other. Each session includes multiband, multi-echo resting-state (16 minutes) and task-based fMRI (16 minutes) during a Sternberg working memory paradigm. TMS targeting was guided by task-evoked activation in the left dlPFC. Structural T1-weighted, T2-weighted, and diffusion-weighted imaging were also acquired. Here, we describe the dataset design, acquisition protocol, and data characteristics, and report initial measures of data quality and reliability. The completed dataset can be accessed at https://openneuro.org/datasets/ds008893, providing an open resource for future investigations of TBS mechanisms and individualized neuromodulation strategies.