Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Chuderski, Adam
• Chinta, Suvarna Rekha

Titel

Transcranial alternating current stimulation barely enhances working memory in healthy adults: A meta-analysis

Ist Teil von

• Brain research, 2024-09, Vol.1839, p.149022-149022, Article 149022

Ort / Verlag

Netherlands: Elsevier B.V

Erscheinungsjahr

2024

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• [Display omitted] •Meta-analyzed transcranial alternating current stimulation of working memory.•We identified 143 effect sizes in 42 reports from 2014 to 2023.•Overall effect of stimulation was negligible, Hedges’ g = 0.076, and biased.•Overall effect of working memory antiphase distortion was reliable, g = −0.266.•Along multiple factors, only individuated frequency was a reliable moderator. Working memory (WM) is a pivotal neural mechanism for cognitive function and ability. Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) was used to improve WM by entraining key brain rhythms. We submitted to meta-analysis 143 effects of tACS on WM performance, found in 42 reports published between 2014 and 2023, encompassing a total of 1386 healthy adults stimulated. The overall effect size of 134 interventions intended to improve WM equaled Hedges’ g = 0.076 [0.039, 0.113]. However, after correcting for a significant publication bias this effect size dropped to zero. By contrast, 9 interventions distorting the brain synchronization using antiphase tACS reliably decreased WM performance, with Hedges’ g = −0.266, [−0.458, −0.074]. Individuating the targeted frequency band was the only reliable moderator. The disparity between our null outcome and moderately positive tACS effects estimated by previous meta-analyses resulted from our inclusion of the most recent studies mostly reporting negligible effects. Our results suggest that current tACS protocols barely enhance WM in healthy adults. More research is needed to develop effective methods for WM stimulation.