Trial reportFrontiers in psychiatry2026
Effects of bifrontal-transcranial direct current stimulation combined with music listening on sleep quality, cortical activation and functional connectivity in patients with insomnia: a randomised controlled trial by fNIRS.
Trial report in Frontiers in psychiatry, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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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.
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
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Abstract
Background: Although music listening and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) alone have certain effects in the treatment of insomnia, the sleep regulatory effects and neural mechanisms of the combined treatment in patients with insomnia disorder (ID) are unclear. This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of combined bifrontal-tDCS (F3: anode, F4: cathode) with music listening in patients with ID using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Methods: 76 ID patients were randomly divided into an intervention group (n=38) and a control group (n=38), and received 4 weeks of a total of 20 sessions of music + tDCS therapy and music + sham tDCS therapy (30-second stimulation with fade-in/fade-out to mimic somatic sensations), respectively. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index Scale (PSQI), Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-14) were compared between the two groups before and after treatment. Oxy-haemoglobin (HbO Results: Compared with the control group, the PSQI total score (mean difference: -2.57 points, 95% CI: -4.43 to -0.71, Conclusions: Combining bifrontal-tDCS with music listening is more helpful in improving sleep quality and prefrontal functional connectivity in ID patients compared with music listening alone. For ID patients, music electrical stimulation headphones may be a safe, effective, and convenient new treatment strategy. Clinical trial registration: https://www.chictr.org.cn/, identifier ChiCTR2400086233.
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