Abstract Alpha oscillations play a vital role in managing the brain’s resources, inhibiting neural activity as a function of their phase and amplitude, and are changed in many brain disorders. Developing minimally invasive tools to modulate alpha activity and identifying the parameters that determine its response to exogenous modulators, is essential for the implementation of focussed interventions. We introduce Alpha Closed-Loop Auditory Stimulation ( αCLAS ) as an EEG-based method to augment and investigate these brain rhythms in humans with specificity and selectivity, using targeted auditory stimulation. Across three independent studies, we demonstrate that αCLAS alters alpha power, frequency, and connectivity in a phase, amplitude and topography-dependent manner. Using a single-pulse- αCLAS evoked potentials approach we show that the effects of auditory stimuli on alpha oscillations and resulting evoked potentials can be explained within the theoretical framework of oscillator theory and a phase-reset mechanism. Finally, we demonstrate the functional relevance of our approach by showing that αCLAS modulates sleep onset dynamics in an alpha phase-dependent manner.

Alpha closed-loop auditory stimulation modulates waking alpha oscillations and sleep onset dynamics in a phase-dependent manner in humans