tACS phase benefits to hearing are real but statistically modest

Evidence

Whether tACS phase modulates this temporal coherence and therewith the segregability of the target remains to be shown; the preliminary data presented here indicate a trend toward a possible effect of 4-Hz tACS phase, as in experiment 1. … 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…, 4807

Categorization

• QUESTION: The modest, non-significant effect sizes (7% click improvement, 0.3 dB tone) raise the question of whether tACS benefits are practically usable at all.