{"doi":"10.1016/j.brs.2021.03.007","title":"Exposure to gamma tACS in Alzheimer’s disease: A randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled, crossover, pilot study","abstract":"OBJECTIVE: To assess whether exposure to non-invasive brain stimulation with transcranial alternating current stimulation at γ frequency (γ-tACS) applied over Pz (an area overlying the medial parietal cortex and the precuneus) can improve memory and modulate cholinergic transmission in mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's disease (MCI-AD). METHODS: In this randomized, double-blind, sham controlled, crossover pilot study, participants were assigned to a single 60 min treatment with exposure to γ-tACS over Pz or sham tACS. Each subject underwent a clinical evaluation including assessment of episodic memory pre- and post-γ-tACS or sham stimulation. Indirect measures of cholinergic transmission evaluated using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) pre- and post-γ-tACS or sham tACS were evaluated. RESULTS: Twenty MCI-AD participants completed the study. No tACS-related side effects were observed, and the intervention was well tolerated in all participants. We observed a significant improvement at the Rey auditory verbal learning (RAVL) test total recall (5.7 [95% CI, 4.0 to 7.4], p < 0.001) and long delayed recall scores (1.3 [95% CI, 0.4 to 2.1], p = 0.007) after γ-tACS but not after sham tACS. Face-name associations scores improved during γ-tACS (4.3 [95% CI, 2.8 to 5.8], p < 0.001) but not after sham tACS. Short latency afferent inhibition, an indirect measure of cholinergic transmission evaluated with TMS, increased only after γ-tACS (0.31 [95% CI, 0.24 to 0.38], p < 0.001) but not after sham tACS. CONCLUSIONS: exposure to γ-tACS over Pz showed a significant improvement of memory performances, along with restoration of intracortical connectivity measures of cholinergic neurotransmission, compared to sham tACS.","journal":"Brain stimulation","year":2021,"id":147217,"datarank":0.7703697655575394,"base_score":5.135798437050262,"endowment":5.135798437050262,"self_citation_contribution":0.7703697655575394,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.7703697655575394,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":169,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9542,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":626049,"name":"Valentina Cantoni","orcid":"0000-0002-9933-5649","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":617524,"name":"Maria Sofia Cotelli","orcid":"0000-0002-7010-2809","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":626050,"name":"Maria Cotelli","orcid":"0000-0003-3208-3798","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":627055,"name":"Chiara Brattini","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":414353,"name":"Abhishek Datta","orcid":"0000-0002-6778-8125","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":414352,"name":"Chris Thomas","orcid":"0000-0002-8397-5107","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":106059,"name":"Emiliano Santarnecchi","orcid":"0000-0002-6533-7427","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":106052,"name":"Álvaro Pascual‐Leone","orcid":"0000-0001-8975-0382","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":65560,"name":"Barbara Borroni","orcid":"0000-0001-9340-9814","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":241669,"name":"Alberto Benussi","orcid":"0000-0002-8703-6940","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":99,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:42:30.206628Z","pmid":"33762220","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}