News Finding: (Photo: Business Wire)
  
  The research, published
  
  in Translational Psychiatry, lays the groundwork for larger
  
  research studies to use a specific kind of electrical brain stimulation
  
  called transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) to treat
  
  people diagnosed with major depression.
Paper Finding: Concurrently, we found a significant reduction in alpha power over the left frontal regions in EEG after completion of the intervention for the group that received per-protocol 10 Hz-tACS (n = 26, p < 0.05).
News Context: With a weak alternating electrical current sent through electrodes
  
  attached to the scalp, UNC School of Medicine researchers successfully
  
  targeted a naturally occurring electrical pattern in a specific part of
  
  the brain and markedly improved depression symptoms in about 70 percent
  
  of participants in a clinical study. (Photo: Business Wire)
  
  The research, published
  
  in Translational Psychiatry, lays the groundwork for larger
  
  research studies to use a specific kind of electrical brain stimulation
  
  called transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) to treat
  
  people diagnosed with major depression. "Now that we've documented how this kind of tACS
  
  can reduce depression symptoms, we can fine tune our approach to help
  
  many people in a relatively inexpensive, noninvasive way."
Paper Context: For the primary outcome, we did not observe a significant interaction between treatment condition (10 Hz-tACS, 40 Hz-tACS, sham) and session (baseline to 4 weeks after completion of treatment); however, exploratory analyses show that 2 weeks after completion of the intervention, the 10 Hz-tACS group had more responders (MADRS and HDRS) compared with 40 HztACS and sham groups (n = 30, p = 0.026). Concurrently, we found a significant reduction in alpha power over the left frontal regions in EEG after completion of the intervention for the group that received per-protocol 10 Hz-tACS (n = 26, p < 0.05). Our data suggest that targeting oscillations with tACS has potential as a therapeutic intervention for treatment of MDD.