The present invention includes a system and methods aimed at surgery, and more particularly to a system and methods for monitoring nervous tissue to assess the integrity of a pedicle wall during or after pilot hole formation and before, during, or after screw implantation, particularly in the thoracic spine. The system also performs other neurophysiologic assessments including, but not necessarily limited to, neuromuscular pathway status, nerve proximity detection, nerve pathology monitoring, and spinal cord health monitoring.