Psience Quest

Quote:Researchers from the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine in Chapel Hill have recently conducted a double-blind pilot clinical study testing a type of electrical brain stimulation therapy called "transcranial alternating current stimulation" (tACS) in people with major depression.

Quote:These brain waves, the researchers explain, grow in intensity when a person daydreams, meditates, or concentrates on a specific idea — that is, when the brain is entirely focused and shuts out distracting stimuli.

In people with major depressive disorder, alpha oscillations are more asymmetrical, meaning that they are much more active in one part of the brain — the left frontal cortex — than in the other.

In the new study, the findings of which now appear in the journal Translational Psychiatry, the researchers tested the effect of tACS on these oscillations with the ultimate aim of verifying whether the novel approach could improve symptoms of major depression.