Connectomic tACS with phase-dependent network effects in aphasia

• Connectome-guided tACS with phase-dependent network targeting is applied in aphasia rehabilitation.¹
• Personalizing tACS by individual connectome improves specificity for language network modulation.^{1 1}

Weekly enrichment (2026-07-20)

• The approach targets the “oscillatory dysfunctome,” an EEG-derived, aphasia-severity-predictive subnetwork identified via network-based linear regression from speech-production EEG in people with post-stroke aphasia (PSA).^{2 3}
• A feasibility study derived the dysfunctome from 15 Cantonese-speaking people with aphasia and localized it to a left frontal-temporal theta network elicited during a divergent naming task.^{2 3}
• Individualized targeting used two principles: restoration-based targeting (a target edge centralized within the dysfunctome but weakly connected in the individual) and enhancement-based targeting (a strongly connected target edge).^{2 3}
• The intervention was a single-session, double-blind, sham-controlled trial delivering dual-site 7-Hz, 1-mA tACS under four conditions: Restoration In-phase (RI), Enhancement In-phase (EI), Enhancement Anti-phase (EA), and Sham (SH).^{2 3}
• Only the RI condition produced increases in target node strength, global network properties, and divergent-naming performance, effects absent in sham and the other real-stimulation conditions.^{2 3}
• A companion phase-dependent analysis (Clinical Neurophysiology, 2026) reports that in-phase tACS on the most centralized dysfunctome edge yielded a network-wide connectivity increase greater than sham, while anti-phase tACS on an individually weakened but centralized edge induced a comparable effect, suggesting a network-reconfiguration mechanism.^{4 5}
• The authors describe this as the first-of-its-kind dysfunctome-based, data-driven individualized tACS with immediate neuromodulatory effects in PSA, while cautioning that the small sample limits generalizability.^{2 3}
• BCI/clinical implication: EEG-derived connectomic biomarkers can pinpoint individualized, phase-controlled stimulation targets, advancing precision neuromodulation for aphasia and other network-based disorders beyond one-size-fits-all montages.^{2 4}

Footnotes

1. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1935861X26000329?dgcid=rss_sd_all ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12443563/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

3. https://doi.org/10.3389/fncom.2025.1635497 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinph.2026.2111712 ↩ ↩²

5. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40980209/ ↩