Skill learning is a fundamental adaptive process, but the mechanisms remain poorly understood. Some learning paradigms, particularly in the memory domain, are closely associated with gamma activity that is amplitude modulated by the phase of underlying theta activity, but whether such nested activity patterns also underpin skill learning is unknown. Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) over sensorimotor cortex is one way to modulate theta–gamma activity during motor skill acquisition, as an exemplar of a nonhippocampal-dependent task1. Indeed, this approach can significantly improve skill acquisition and provides a putative novel intervention for optimizing functional improvements in response to training or therapy. This talk will discuss related work including recent modelling approaches and highlight challenges and limitations.