Thirty years of transcranial magnetic stimulation: where do we stand?

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has been first described 30 years ago, and since then has gained enormous attention by neurologists, psychiatrists, neurosurgeons, clinical neurophysiologists, psychologists, and neuroscientist alike. In the early days, it was primarily used to test integrity of the corticospinal tract. Beyond further developments of TMS in diagnostics, mapping and monitoring of the motor system, major other applications expanded into using TMS as research tool in the cognitive neurosciences, and as therapeutic tool in neurological and psychiatric disease by virtue of inducing long-term change in excitability and connectivity of the stimulated brain networks. This mini-review will highlight these developments by reviewing the 10 most frequently cited TMS publications. Despite the tremendous popularity and success of TMS as a non-invasive technique to stimulate the human brain, several aims remain unresolved. This review will end with highlighting those 10 most frequently cited papers that have been published in 2014-2016 to indicate the currently hottest topics in TMS research and major avenues of development.