13th International Symposium on nTMS in Neurosurgery and Neuromodulation held successfully

The 13th International Symposium on nTMS in Neurosurgery and Neuromodulation was held on 11-12 October 2024 in Berlin, Germany. The event is organized by the neurosurgery departments of Charité Berlin, Heidelberg University Hospital and the Technical University of Munich and supported by Nexstim. The symposium attracted a record number of attendees and experts to Berlin, fostering collaboration in clinical and research applications.

The event kicked off with a session on connectomics, featuring keynote speaker Michael Fox, who discussed using the human connectome to enhance neuromodulation targeting. Following him, Stephanie Forkel explored language processing through neuroimaging. The pediatrics and epilepsy session included case examples from Ulrich Thomale and Shalini Narayana, showcasing nTMS motor and language mapping in children. In the pre-procedural planning session, renowned neurosurgeon Hugues Duffau gave a lecture on brain plasticity, followed by Sam Ng who presented on nTMS pre-surgical language mapping at Montpellier University Hospital. Stephanie Combs presented on the importance of nTMS mapping data for minimizing radiation exposure to eloquent tissue. The symposium highlighted therapeutic applications of nTMS, featuring talks from Sandro Krieg on post-surgical rehabilitation and Anastasia Shulga on spinal cord injury rehabilitation. Joshua Brown addressed depression treatment with navigated TMS and Satu Jääskeläinen presented on nTMS for chronic neuropathic pain therapy. The event concluded with a TMS-EEG session led by Mario Rosanova, who discussed TMS-EEG for consciousness. Brian Edlow presented his findings on coma patients.

An important part of the Symposium are the lightning round presentations, highlighting new research in 5-minute, bite-sized bits. From a pool of nearly 40 abstract submissions, the participants voted the following abstracts to be the winners:

Winner:
Melina Engelhardt - Reduced reactivity in peritumoral tissue as measured by TMS-EEG

1st Runner Up:
Anna Nätkynmäki - Spinally targeted paired associated stimulation with high-frequency peripheral component induces spinal level plasticity in healthy subjects

2nd Runners Up:
Josephine Jung - Functional Cortical Mapping and Structural Subcortical Anatomy predicts Intra-Operative Speech Arrest: a nTMS-Tractography Study
Leonie Kram - Integration of complex and language profile-specific tasks to identify highly interlinked language and cognitive network components in glioma patients
Chrisa Fotiadou - The effects of repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation on language performance and changes in brain connectivity in healthy individuals

During the event, Nexstim also gathered feedback for the NBS 6 for pre-procedural mapping, prior to its planned release in 2025. Long-time nTMS users were able to test the enhanced, modernized platform and other interested parties were given the opportunity to see live demos, exploring the exciting new features prior to the launch.

Overall, the symposium fostered a strong sense of community among nTMS users, showcasing the potential for collaborative development across borders, centers and disciplines.