Tuning the Brain - Transcranial Ultrasound (TUS) experiment

Dear all,

Please join us to participate in transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS), a new, non-invasive brain modulation technique using ultrasound changing concious mental states in the brain by altering resonance in cytoskeletal structures inside brain neurons called microtubulus.

Thanks to Frank Theys who lectured recently at our Future of Art Science Collaborations series, we are in contact with Professor Stuart Hameroff Center for Conciousness Studies of the University of Arizona. Hameroff and his collaborators are doing advanced research in this area and invite us for a participatory demonstration of their research during a stop over in Amsterdam on their way to Helsinki for the conference ‘Toward a Science of Consciousness’ (www.helsinki.fi/tsc2015)

Please find more about the research and what is proposing to in Amsterdam during our Open Wetlab evening on Tuesdays, just a few days before our Hack the Brain event (www.hackthebrain.nl).

‘Tuning the brain’ – Can transcranial ultrasound (‘TUS’) treat mental and cognitive disorders?

Stuart Hameroff1,3, Sterling Cooley2, Joseph L Sanguinetti3, John JB Allen3

1Anesthesiology, Center for Consciousness Studies, Banner-University Medical Center, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 2Berkeley Ultrasound, Berkeley CA, 3Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

Brain functions leading to conscious mental states depend to some extent on cytoskeletal structures inside brain neurons called microtubules. Evidence in recent years has shown microtubules resonate coherently in kilohertz, megahertz and gigahertz frequencies. Thus mental states and cognitive functions are likely to depend in some way on microtubule vibrations, e.g. in megahertz, whose modulation could alter and possibly improve brain function. Non-invasive brain modulation techniques include transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), transcranial direct current and alternating current stimulation (tDCS, tACS), and transcranial ultrasound (TUS). Ultrasound consists of mechanical vibrations, typically 0.5 to 8 megahertz (‘MHz’), used safely in medicine for nearly a century. Motivated by microtubule MHz resonances, and EEG and fMRI evidence of asymmetrical frontal activity being related to mood, our group at the University of Arizona has conducted trials of TUS targeting inferolateral frontal cortex in human volunteers. Using a medical imaging GE ultrasound device, we published the first human (double blind) TUS study in 2013, showing mood enhancement. In subsequent studies using a commercial device (Thync, Inc.), we’ve shown that TUS for 15 or 30 seconds at 150 mW/cm2 to right fronto-temporal scalp and cortex results in 30 to 40 minutes of mood enhancement (as measured by Visual Analogue Mood Scales, VAMS, and Global Affect scores). EEG recordings showed increased gamma activity near the TUS site. Additionally, for some participants, TUS at the vertex, which targeted the anterior cingulate cortex, resulted in anecdotal ‘out-of-body experience’ and uncontrolled laughter. Recently, studies in animal models of Alzheimer’s disease (in which microtubules de-stabilize) have shown TUS-induced improvement in symptoms and pathology. With a new specially-designed TUS device, the ‘NeuroResonator’ (Berkeley Ultrasound) we plan clinical studies of TUS for depression, Alzheimer’s, traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorders and emergence from anesthesia. At the Waag Society meeting, Stuart Hameroff will discuss the theory of microtubule vibrations, Joseph ‘Jay’ Sanguinetti will present results of clinical TUS trials on over 300 human subjects at the University of Arizona, and Sterling Cooley of Berkeley Ultrasound will describe his development of the NeuroResonator TUS device. The team will demonstrate the ‘NeuroResonator’ TUS device, and invite audience member volunteers to try it.