Hou TY, Mao XF, Zhang RK. Effect of theta-transcranial alternating current stimulation on working memory performance among healthy adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis. World J Psychiatry 2025; 15(9): 107754 [DOI: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i9.107754]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Rui-Ke Zhang, Lecturer, Faculty of Psychology, Naval Medical University, No. 800 Xiangyin Raod, Shanghai 200433, China. zrk_2015@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Psychology
Article-Type of This Article
Meta-Analysis
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Psychiatry. Sep 19, 2025; 15(9): 107754 Published online Sep 19, 2025. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i9.107754
Effect of theta-transcranial alternating current stimulation on working memory performance among healthy adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Tian-Ya Hou, Xiao-Fei Mao, Rui-Ke Zhang
Tian-Ya Hou, Xiao-Fei Mao, Rui-Ke Zhang, Faculty of Psychology, Naval Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China
Co-corresponding authors: Xiao-Fei Mao and Rui-Ke Zhang.
Author contributions: Hou TY and Zhang RK designed the experiment and wrote the manuscript; Hou TY analyzed the data; Mao XF and Zhang RK made equal contributions as co-corresponding authors; all authors contributed to the critical revision, editing of the article, prepared the draft and approved the submitted version.
Supported by Shanghai Municipal Health Commission’s Special Clinical Research Project for the Hygiene Industry, No. 20244Y0041; and Youth Initiation Fund of Naval Medical University, No. 2023QN028 and No. 2023QN030.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Rui-Ke Zhang, Lecturer, Faculty of Psychology, Naval Medical University, No. 800 Xiangyin Raod, Shanghai 200433, China. zrk_2015@163.com
Received: April 1, 2025 Revised: May 22, 2025 Accepted: July 24, 2025 Published online: September 19, 2025 Processing time: 150 Days and 23.4 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: In this meta-analysis, we evaluated theta-band transcranial alternating current stimulation for working memory enhancement in healthy adults. Although initial analyses showed moderate efficacy, correction for publication bias rendered effects nonsignificant. Notably, task-specific effects emerged, specifically showing significant improvement in n-back tasks vs null effects in delayed match-to-sample tasks. Key moderators of performance included stimulation frequency, concurrent status, task modality, and stimulation duration for n-back tasks and the target region for match-to-sample tasks. Although these findings primarily guide cognitive enhancement protocols for healthy individuals, they also provide mechanistic insights for potential clinical translation to populations with working memory deficits.
