This tool could show how consciousness works

MIT philosopher Matthias Michel and Lincoln Lab researcher Daniel Freeman outline an experimental strategy using transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS) to investigate the neural basis of consciousness. Unlike EEG or MRI, tFUS is noninvasive yet reaches deeper brain structures with millimeter-level resolution by sending acoustic waves through the skull. The proposed experiments would test two competing theories: the 'cognitivist' view that consciousness arises from higher-level frontal cortex processes, and the 'non-cognitivist' view that localized subcortical or posterior cortical neural patterns directly generate subjective experience.