ArticleSocial cognitive and affective neuroscience2018
Lasting connectivity increase and anxiety reduction via transcranial alternating current stimulation.
Article in Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Effects of transcranial alternating current stimulation on cognitive function in older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2025Pooled it
- Is transcranial alternating current stimulation effective for improving working memory? A three-level meta-analysis.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2025Pooled it
- Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation at the Individual Alpha Frequency Shows Potential Value in Improving Working Memory in Healthy Participants.Brain and behavior · 2026Trial
- Effect of Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation on Prevention of Postoperative Pain After Video-Assisted Thoracic Surgery: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Pain research & management · 2026Trial
- Medial parietal alpha-frequency transcranial alternating current stimulation for chronic insomnia: a randomized sham-controlled trial.Psychological medicine · 2025Trial
- Machine learning and individual variability in electric field characteristics predict tDCS treatment response.Brain stimulationTrial
- Identification of an intrusive-hypervigilant phenotype of posttraumatic stress symptoms with unique stress peptide and amygdala functional connectivity profiles.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Alpha and Beta Powers in EEG: How Audio-Visual Stimulation Influences Anxiety.Applied psychophysiology and biofeedback · 2026Article
- Exploring the Effects of tACS Duration on Resting-State EEG: An Exploratory Within-Subject Study in Healthy Volunteers.Journal of medical systems · 2026Article
- Reducing state anxiety with alpha-frequency transcranial alternating current stimulation.Research square · 2026Article
- Neural changes to transcranial alternating current stimulation in the gamma range over the left frontoparietal network: A preliminary eLORETA EEG study.AIMS neuroscience · 2026Article
- Experienced meditators show greater forward traveling cortical alpha wave strengths.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2025Article
- Repetitive Gamma-tACS Improves the Reaction Times of Healthy Young Adults in a Visuospatial Working Memory Task: A Randomized Study.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- Neuromodulation of Fear and Anxiety Circuits.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2025Review
- Individual alpha frequency tACS reduces static functional connectivity across the default mode network.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2025Article
- Machine learning-optimized non-invasive brain stimulation and treatment response classification for major depression.Bioelectronic medicine · 2024Article
- Neural interfaces: Bridging the brain to the world beyond healthcare.Exploration (Beijing, China) · 2024Article
- Neural Network Connectivity Following Opioid Dependence is Altered by a Common Genetic Variant in the µ-Opioid Receptor,The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024Article
- Connectivity changes following transcranial alternating current stimulation at 5-Hz: an EEG study.AIMS neuroscience · 2024Article
- Aftereffects of frontoparietal theta tACS on verbal working memory: Behavioral and neurophysiological analysis.IBRO neuroscience reports · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Growing evidence of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) modulating intrinsic neural oscillations has spawned interest in applying tACS to treat psychiatric disorders associated with aberrant neural oscillations. The alpha rhythmic activity is known to dominate neural oscillations at the awake, restful state, while attenuated resting-state alpha activity has been implicated in anxious mood. Administering repeated alpha-frequency tACS (α-tACS; at individual peak alpha frequency; 8-12 Hz) over four consecutive days (in the experiment group, sham stimulation in the control group), we demonstrated immediate and lasting (>24 h) increases in resting-state posterior ➔frontal connectivity in the alpha frequency, quantified by Granger causality. Critically, this connectivity enhancement was accompanied by sustained reductions in both anxious arousal and negative perception of sensory stimuli. Resting-state alpha power also increased, albeit only transiently, reversing to the baseline level within 24 h after tACS. Therefore, the lasting enhancement of long-range alpha connectivity due to α-tACS differs from local alpha activity that is nonetheless conserved, highlighting the adaptability of alpha oscillatory networks. In light of increasing recognition of large-scale network dysfunctions as a transdiagnostic pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders, this enduring connectivity plasticity, along with the behavioral improvements, paves the way for tACS applications in clinical interventions of psychiatric 'oscillopathies'.
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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.