ReviewTrends in cognitive sciences2020
Theta Oscillations in Human Memory.
Review in Trends in cognitive sciences, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 264 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
264 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- EEG biomarkers for assessment, prognosis, and monitoring of natural upper limb recovery after stroke: a systematic review.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2026Pooled it
- Effects of complex whole-body movements on EEG activity: a scoping review.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Pooled it
- Oscillatory activity underlying cognitive performance in children and adolescents with autism: a systematic review.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2024Pooled it
- Effects of 40-Hz transcranial alternating current stimulation on cognition and neural markers in Alzheimer's disease: a randomized, sham-controlled trial.Alzheimer's research & therapy · 2026Trial
- Task-Specific Personalized Theta tACS Modulates Theta Dynamics in Associative Memory.Brain and behavior · 2026Trial
- Long-term effects of bifrontal transcranial alternating current stimulation on verbal working memory and episodic memory in young healthy adults.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Brain compensatory mechanisms in depression and memory complaints in fibromyalgia: the role of theta oscillatory activity.Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) · 2024Trial
- Optimized Cardiorespiratory State at Tone Onset Enhances Sensory Responses but Not Associative Learning in Healthy Adults.The European journal of neuroscience · 2026Article
- 3-Methyladenine administration alleviates cognitive and memory dysfunction in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder by modulating autophagy.Psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Resting-state neural oscillations predict individual differences in verbal learning and encoding strategy use.iScience · 2026Article
- Theta synchronization coordinates ventral temporal and medial temporal coding of human face familiarity.Cell reports · 2026Article
- Hippocampal-cingulate dynamics in the human brain link reinforcement-learning and memory.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Resting-State Magnetoencephalography Functional Connectivity in Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy: An MEG Study with SHAP-Based Interpretation.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Distinctly structured social behavior across three rodent strains is associated with different neural activity patterns.iScience · 2026Article
- Frequency-Specific Neural Dynamics and Decoding of Hierarchical Auditory Sequences Revealed by Magnetoencephalography.Neuroscience bulletin · 2026Article
- Functional Connectivity at Rest and During Cognitive Processing in Multiple Sclerosis: A Pilot Magnetoencephalography Study and Systematic Review.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Potential mechanisms and functional significance of aperiodic neural activity.Nature human behaviour · 2026Review
- Theta oscillations tag episodic memories for sleep-dependent consolidation.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- Medial entorhinal-hippocampal desynchronization parallels the emergence of memory impairment in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease pathology.Cell reports · 2026Article
- Sleep lowers waking theta frequency in the rat hippocampus.Cell reports · 2026Article
204 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Theta frequency (4-8 Hz) fluctuations of the local field potential have long been implicated in learning and memory. Human studies of episodic memory, however, have provided mixed evidence for theta's role in successful learning and remembering. Re-evaluating these conflicting findings leads us to conclude that: (i) successful memory is associated both with increased narrow-band theta oscillations and a broad-band tilt of the power spectrum; (ii) theta oscillations specifically support associative memory, whereas the spectral tilt reflects a general index of activation; and (iii) different cognitive contrasts (generalized versus specific to memory), recording techniques (invasive versus noninvasive), and referencing schemes (local versus global) alter the balance between the two phenomena to make one or the other more easily detectable.
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Registered trials
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.