Trial reportNeural plasticity2016
Effects of Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation on Cognitive Functions in Healthy Young and Older Adults.
Trial report in Neural plasticity, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- A Systematic Review of tACS Effects on Cognitive Functioning in Older Adults Across the Healthy to Dementia Spectrum.Neuropsychology review · 2024Pooled it
- Efficacy of Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation in the Enhancement of Working Memory Performance in Healthy Adults: A Systematic Meta-Analysis.Neuromodulation : journal of the International Neuromodulation Society · 2023Pooled it
- The use of noninvasive brain stimulation techniques to improve reading difficulties in dyslexia: A systematic review.Human brain mapping · 2022Pooled it
- Impact of multisession 40Hz tACS on hippocampal perfusion in patients with Alzheimer's disease.Alzheimer's research & therapy · 2021Trial
- tDCS-induced episodic memory enhancement and its association with functional network coupling in older adults.Scientific reports · 2019Trial
- Double-blind, randomized clinical trial targeting theta oscillations with transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) for cognitive control in male methamphetamine patients.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Feasibility and Effectiveness of Personalized Home-Based Neurostimulation for Teachers Experiencing Work-Related Rumination.Brain and behavior · 2026Article
- Haemodynamic correlates of bilateral 6 Hz transcranial alternating current stimulation during working memory enhancement revealed by fNIRS.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Article
- Chronotype in alpha-tACS: Preliminary evidence hints at sleep quality modulation of aftereffects in evening types in the morning.Neurobiology of sleep and circadian rhythms · 2025Article
- Utilizing tACS to enhance memory confidence and EEG to predict individual differences in brain stimulation efficacy.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2025Article
- Individualized frequency and montage tACS to engage theta-gamma coupling and enhance working memory in mild cognitive impairment.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Differential online and offline effects of theta-tACS on memory encoding and retrieval.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2024Article
- Exploring the Therapeutic Effects and Mechanisms of Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation on Improving Walking Ability in Stroke Patients via Modulating Cerebellar Gamma Frequency Band-a Narrative Review.Cerebellum (London, England) · 2024Review
- The Effect of Rhythmic Audio-Visual Stimulation on Inhibitory Control: An ERP Study.Brain sciences · 2024Article
- No Benefit in Memory Performance after Nocturnal Memory Reactivation Coupled with Theta-tACS.Clocks & sleep · 2024Article
- Prefrontal theta-gamma transcranial alternating current stimulation improves non-declarative visuomotor learning in older adults.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- rTMS reduces delta and increases theta oscillations in Alzheimer's disease: A visual-evoked and event-related potentials study.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2024Article
- The moderating effects of sex, age, and education on the outcome of combined cognitive training and transcranial electrical stimulation in older adults.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Attempting to counteract vigilance decrement in older adults with brain stimulation.Frontiers in neuroergonomics · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Recently, transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) has emerged as a tool to enhance human cognitive processes. Here, we provide a brief summary of the rationale behind tACS-induced effects on task-relevant brain oscillations and associated cognitive functions and review previous studies in young subjects that have applied tACS in cognitive paradigms. Additionally, we present pilot data where we administered theta-tACS (6 Hz) over the temporoparietal cortex and a supraorbital reference for 20 min during implicit language learning in healthy young (mean/SD age: 22/2) and older (mean/SD age: 66/4) adults, in a sham-controlled crossover design. Linear mixed models revealed significantly increased retrieval accuracy following tACS-accompanied associative learning, after controlling for session order and learning success. These data provide the first implementation of tACS during cognitive performance in older adults and support recent studies suggesting that tACS in the theta frequency range may serve as a tool to enhance cognition, possibly through direct modulation of task-relevant brain oscillations. So far, studies have been heterogeneous in their designs, leaving a number of issues to be addressed in future research, including the setup of electrodes and optimal stimulation frequencies to be employed, as well as the interaction with age and underlying brain pathologies in specific patient populations.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.