Mediating mood via brain ultrasound.

• Position: Neurology

Ultrasound waves applied to specific areas of the brain are able to alter patients' moods, researchers at the University of Arizona, Tucson, have found. The discovery has led scientists to conduct further investigations with the hope that this technique one day could be used to treat conditions such as depression and anxiety.

Lead author Stuart Hameroff, professor emeritus in the Departments of Anesthesiology and Psychology and director of the Center for Consciousness Studies, became interested in applying ultrasound to the human brain when he read about a study by colleague Jamie Tyler at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg, that found physiological and behavioral effects in animals that had ultrasound applied to the scalp, with the waves passing through the skull.

Hameroff knew that ultrasound vibrates in megahertz frequencies at about 10,000,000 vibrations per second, and that microtubules, protein structures inside brain neurons linked to mood and consciousness, also resonate in megahertz frequencies. Hameroff proposed testing ultrasound treatment for mood on human brains.

After 15 seconds with an ultrasound transducer, a...