Phase-locked tACS yields only small, often non-significant perceptual gains
Evidence
Observations of actual benefits of tACS compared with sham stimulation are rather modest so far. In experiment 1, click detection improved on average by 7 % (at best phase), a difference that did not reach statistical significance. Neuling et al. ( 2012 ) observed a 0.3-dB improvement in tone detection. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 4768
Categorization
Category: Factual Claims
- SEED: Angle for a skeptical piece on the hype around transcranial stimulation: the measured perceptual benefits are tiny, roughly 7% or 0.3 dB, often below significance.
Related
- Perceptual gains from tACS entrainment are small and often statistically weak (similarity 0.94)
- tACS phase benefits to hearing are real but statistically modest (similarity 0.91)
- tACS stimulation phase changes detection but not overall performance versus sham. (similarity 0.86)
- tACS perceptual benefits so far are modest and often statistically marginal (similarity 0.86)
- tACS boosts loudness of click trains temporally coherent with entrained oscillations (similarity 0.85)
- Phase-coherent brain stimulation may boost perceived loudness of matched click trains (similarity 0.83)
- tACS phase significantly modulates click detection in normal-hearing listeners (similarity 0.83)
- The polarity half-cycle of tACS stimulation measurably shifts click detection performance. (similarity 0.83)
- Sham tACS stimulation successfully blinded participants to condition (similarity 0.82)
- Stimuli are individually calibrated to near-detection threshold to expose tACS phase effects (similarity 0.82)
- Transcranial alternating current phase modulates auditory click detection at the stimulation frequency (similarity 0.82)
- tACS phase polarity alters hearing detection relative to opposite polarity but not sham baseline (similarity 0.82)
- tACS might bypass a damaged auditory periphery to deliver envelope information (similarity 0.82)
- Sham tACS controls succeeded because participants could not distinguish active from inactive (similarity 0.82)
- Sham tACS can be delivered in a way participants cannot distinguish from real stimulation (similarity 0.81)