Navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation brain mapping: Achievements, opportunities, and prospects

Maximizing the extent of tumor removal and preserving maximal neurological function are always the fundamental objectives in brain tumor surgery. This has motivated neurosurgeons to try various ways to map brain functions before tumor resection. Navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation (nTMS) is a new noninvasive method for brain mapping, which has produced exceptional results in clinical practice in recent years. However, there are still many deficiencies which need to be addressed to make nTMS more suitable for clinical application and neuroscience research. In this review, we highlight the opportunities provided by nTMS mapping, analyze the shortcomings at a theoretical level, and then emphasize the possibilities and prospects of applying multimodal fusion nTMS.