Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have selfrenewal ability and multilineage differentiation potential, but the differentiation direction lacks guidance and is affected by many factors such as genes, cytokines and internal environment. Stem cell transplantation is the common method for the treatment of neurological disease. This article describes the induction methods of directional differentiation of MSCs, such as neurotrophic factors, chemical inducers, photobiomodulation, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and their possible mechanisms.