This new tool could tell us how consciousness works

Transcranial focused ultrasound is a noninvasive brain imaging tool that allows researchers to stimulate specific deep brain structures with millimeter precision. MIT researchers have published a roadmap for using this technology to study consciousness by testing competing theories about whether conscious experience requires higher-level cognitive processes in the frontal cortex or arises from localized neural activity. The tool enables causal experiments that can distinguish which brain activity generates consciousness versus merely correlating with it, with planned studies focusing on visual perception and pain processing.