ArticleImaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)2024
Distinct effects of slow and fast theta tACS in enhancing temporal memory.
Article in Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.), 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Context familiarity speeds up boundary responses at encoding.Psychological research · 2026Article
- Opposing effects of slow and fast theta synchrony on working memory in the human hippocampal-orbitofrontal network.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Dissociable age-dependent effects of emotion on scene and location memory.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Simultaneous tACS-fMRI reveals state- and frequency-specific modulation of hippocampal-cortical functional connectivity.Communications psychology · 2025Article
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4 authors.
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Abstract
Temporal memory plays a crucial role in organizing real-life events into meaningful segments. Previous research suggests that the clustering of temporally related information builds on the neural correlates of associative memory, including theta oscillations. Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) provides a means of modulating theta oscillations within associative memory networks, possibly including hippocampal modulation when targeting the parietal cortex. Theta oscillations are not limited to a single frequency range, but instead, exhibit functional specialization, with slow theta (3 Hz) implicated in short-term episodic memory formation and fast theta (8 Hz) involved in spatial navigation. Our study aimed to investigate the distinct effects of slow and fast theta stimulation on temporal memory. Participants encoded visual objects paired with frame color while receiving tACS stimulation at 3 Hz, 8 Hz, or sham targeting the left parietal cortex. The frame color would change after every eight objects, establishing a context boundary with each color change. Subsequently, participants performed a timeline task to assess temporal memory performance. Results showed that slow, but not fast, theta stimulation led to an enhancement in temporal accuracy (absolute temporal error) compared to sham tACS, in support of our main hypothesis. Under sham stimulation, participants consistently underestimated the temporal position of items presented further away from boundary, compared to those presented at boundary. This finding resembled temporal compression observed during event segmentation. Interestingly, fast, but not slow, theta stimulation reduced this temporal bias (rated position-actual position). This study represents the first tACS evidence for differential contributions of slow versus fast theta to temporal memory formation in humans. We speculate that parietal theta tACS may modulate the hippocampus and facilitate temporal memory formation.
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