Personalized Brain Stimulation based on Brain Oscillations: A Systematic Review of MEG- and EEG-informed Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation (tACS).

A systematic review mapped 143 experiments that personalized tACS from EEG or MEG. Most individualized stimulation frequency, especially alpha, while relatively few personalized timing or electrode placement.

Sharifzadeh S, Jouzdani AF, Souki A, Brunoni AR, Marques DB, Ebrahimi M, Ghobadi-Azbari P, Pariz A, Soleimani G, Yavari F, Khosrowabadi R, Violante IR, Ekhtiari H.
Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · Publication date: 2026-09-20
Added to site: 2026-09-21
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2026.106991

Electronic publication date verified in Europe PMC.

Modalities

EEG, MEG, tACS, Personalized stimulation

Clinical focus

Brain oscillations, Closed-loop stimulation, Cognition

Population

Human EEG- or MEG-informed individualized tACS studies published through January 2024

Sample

78 publications comprising 143 experiments: 128 EEG-informed and 15 MEG-informed

Intervention / method

Individualized tACS frequency, timing or montage selected from participant-specific EEG or MEG measures

Comparator

Sham-controlled and active-control experiments were summarized separately

Clinician summary

Frequency-based individualization accounted for 93% of experiments. Significant positive outcomes were reported in 77.9% of sham-controlled experiments and 56.2% with active controls, a contrast that supports stronger active-control designs rather than proving a pooled treatment effect.

How to interpret the findings

The accessible abstract reports proportions of experiments with significant outcomes, not pooled effect sizes, risk-of-bias results or evidence certainty. Studies varied by population, outcome, control and parameter-selection method. The literature search ended in January 2024, so newer work was not included.

Equipment and disclosures

The review covered EEG- and MEG-informed tACS studies with varied recording and stimulation systems; individual manufacturers and devices were not itemized in the accessible abstract.

Funding and competing-interest details were not available in the checked indexed record.

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