Neuroscience

Transcranial direct-current stimulation

Transcranial magnetic stimulation

Cognition

Cognitive neuroscience

Psychology

Neurocognitive

Stimulation

Transcranial alternating current stimulation

Brain stimulation

Electroencephalography

Trends in Cognitive Sciences

Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) can modulate human neural activity and behavior. Accordingly, tACS has vast potential for cognitive research and brain disorder therapies. The stimulation generates oscillating electric fields in the brain that can bias neural spike timing, causing changes in local neural oscillatory power and cross-frequency and cross-area coherence. tACS affects cognitive performance by modulating underlying single or nested brain rhythms, local or distal synchronization, and metabolic activity. Clinically, stimulation tailored to abnormal neural oscillations shows promising results in alleviating psychiatric and neurological symptoms. We summarize the findings of tACS mechanisms, its use for cognitive applications, and novel developments for personalized stimulation.

Neurocognitive, physiological, and biophysical effects of transcranial alternating current stimulation