Transcranial alternating current stimulation: a review of the underlying mechanisms and modulation of cognitive processes

By Christoph S. Herrmann, Stefan Rach, Toralf Neuling, Daniel Strüber. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2013

758 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Brain oscillations of different frequencies have been associated with a variety of cognitive functions. Convincing evidence supporting those associations has been provided by studies using intracranial stimulation, pharmacological interventions and lesion studies. The emergence of novel non-invasive brain stimulation techniques like repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) now allows to modulate brain oscillations directly. Particularly, tACS offers the unique opportunity to causally link brain oscillations of a specific frequency range to cognitive processes, because it uses sinusoidal currents that are bound to one frequency only. Using tACS allows to modulate brain oscillations and in turn to influence cognitive processes, thereby demonstrating the causal link between the two. Here, we review findings about the physiological mechanism of tACS and studies that have used tACS to modulate basic motor and sensory processes as well as higher cognitive processes like memory, ambiguous perception, and decision making.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a28f9898d8a0cddde253576562aec5499827b3c6

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Citations in the corpus

Combining non-invasive transcranial brain stimulation with neuroimaging and electrophysiology: Current approaches and future perspectives (2016, neutral): “Stimulation frequency is another crucial variable,which is highly relevant for the safety and efficacy of TMS (Rossi et al., 2009) or TACS (Antal and Paulus, 2013; Fertonani et al., 2015; Herrmann et al., 2013).”
Sleeping on the motor engram: The multifaceted nature of sleep‐related motor memory consolidation (2017, neutral): “Three main TES techniques – based on the nature of the current administered – are commonly used (Herrmann et al., 2013): (a) transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS, constant current), (b) transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS, alternating currents B.”
Entrainment of brain oscillations by transcranial alternating current stimulation. (2014, positive): “Recently, evidence has emerged that tACS (transcranial alternating current stimulation) can modulate cortical oscillations [7–9].”
Optimization of multifocal transcranial current stimulation for weighted cortical pattern targeting from realistic modeling of electric fields (2013, neutral): “…such natural rhythms in brain networks through the process of resonance (Antal and Paulus, 2013; Dayan et al., 2013; Fröhlich and McCormick, 2010; Herrmann et al., 2013; Merlet et al., 2013; Paulus, 2011; Ruffini et al., 2013; Zaehle et al., 2010) and devices such as StarStim already allow for…”
A technical guide to tDCS, and related non-invasive brain stimulation tools (2015, methodology): “tACS entrainment has been demonstrated for a large variety of tasks (Antal and Paulus, 2013; Herrmann et al., 2013; Fröhlich et al., 2015), however, the observed behav-”
Targeting neural oscillations with transcranial alternating current stimulation (2021, methodology): “One such method, transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS), is the delivery of electric current to the scalp such that a rhythmically fluctuating electric field is generated within the brain (Antal and Paulus, 2013; Herrmann, 2013; Fr ¨ ohlich, 2015).”
Mechanisms and Controversies of tACS (Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation) (2024, background): “Such enhancement have been shown to affect perception, memory, and various cognitive functions (Herrmann et al., 2013; Marshall et al., 2006; Neuling et al., 2012; Strüber et al., 2014; Thut et al., 2011), and serve as a potential treatment for psychiatric symptoms (Ahn et al., 2019; Alexander et…”
Rhythmic TMS as a Feasible Tool to Uncover the Oscillatory Signatures of Audiovisual Integration (2023, background): “oscillatory peak frequencies toward faster or slower cycling rates [51,52].”
Alpha oscillatory activity is causally linked to working memory retention (2023, background): “Conventional continuous tACS was usually demonstrated to enhance brain oscillations at the stimulation frequency via entrainment [13].”
Inferring Causality from Noninvasive Brain Stimulation in Cognitive Neuroscience (2020, background): “Yet, no clear procedure has been established to define the number of control frequencies or the distance from the frequency of interest (Herrmann et al., 2013).”