Assessing the Clinical Utility of tACS in the Treatment of Anxious Arousal and Sensory Sensitivity

Recent years have witnessed increasing recognition of "oscillopathies", neuropsychiatric disorders characterized by aberrations in the neural oscillations that orchestrate various mental activities. Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) provides an effective way to directly modulate these oscillations in a non-invasive and frequency-specific manner, offering groundbreaking insights into the workings of the brain and, importantly, the development of novel treatments for these oscillopathies. However, evidence is lacking for the ability of tACS to induce long-term neural plasticity and lasting behavioral changes, which is critical for establishing the clinical utility of this novel intervention.

Here, we are administering 30 minutes of alpha-frequency tACS over occipitoparietal sites for four consecutive days to evaluate both transient and long-term changes in alpha oscillatory power and long-range, directed oscillatory connectivity. As both anxious arousal and sensory sensitivity are highly related to alpha oscillations, as well as numerous neuropsychiatric disorders, changes in these behavioral outcomes were subsequently evaluated to assess clinically-relevant outcomes of the repeated tACS protocol.