August 26, 2024
2 Time required to read
Ultrasound brain stimulation enhances mindfulness
Study participants reported experiencing time distortion, fewer negative thoughts, and an increased sense of freedom from emotions following the non-invasive ultrasound intervention.
Even when we are not doing anything, our brains are constantly active: daydreaming, thinking, pondering the past and the future, etc. This way of mind-wandering has a major influence on our internal conscious experience.
In a recent study of 30 participants, researchers applied low-intensity ultrasound to brain regions associated with introspection and distraction from non-work thoughts. Participants who received five minutes of ultrasound stimulation reported significantly increased mindfulness (the ability to be fully present in the moment without judgment of others or oneself). The Frontier of Human Neuroscience.
“I haven’t seen ultrasound technology used in this way, but this type of neuromodulation has great potential to change how we think about and enhance mindfulness,” says Hadley Larrig, a social psychologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who also studies states of mind.
Supporting science journalism
If you enjoyed this article, please support our award-winning journalism. Subscribe. By purchasing a subscription, you help ensure a future of influential stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping the world today.
The researchers targeted the brain’s default mode network (DMN), a collection of interconnected regions that become especially active when the mind drifts away from the outside world and into activities like reminiscing or envisioning the future. Abnormal DMN activity and connectivity are associated with anxious rumination and depressive symptoms. “Your mind can’t stop, your thoughts can’t stop. We hypothesized that we could use ultrasound stimulation to remove the stickiness and cool the network down,” says Brian Lord, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Arizona and lead author of the new study.
Since the DMN was described in 2001, scientists have tried to manipulate it in crude ways, such as through meditation and psychedelic drug therapy. But because the DMN is deep in the brain, it has remained difficult to precisely tune its function.
To overcome this challenge, Lord and his team used transcranial focused ultrasound, a technology that converts electric currents into concentrated, localized sound waves. (Half of the participants received sham ultrasound as a control.) These waves can penetrate brain regions deeper, with millimeter-level precision, than other noninvasive stimulation methods, which typically use magnetic fields or electrodes attached to the scalp to induce electric currents that extend over several centimeters.
Functional MRI scans revealed that the researchers effectively suppressed activity in the posterior cingulate cortex, a key region of the DMN that is involved in regulating emotions and focusing during meditation. Through questionnaires and interviews, participants in the treatment group reported subjective effects similar to those of entering a deep meditative state for at least 30 minutes: a distorted sense of time, reduced negative thoughts, and an increased ability to detach from emotions. Other scientists at the University of Arizona are testing the technique to treat mood disorders such as depression.
“One of the biggest barriers to meditation and mindfulness is the steep learning curve. Brain stimulation acts like training wheels for the mind, helping people reach a deeper state of consciousness,” Lord says. “That’s our big goal.”
