Accelerating Mindfulness Training with Ultrasonic Neuromodulation
Presenter:
Dr. Jay Sanguinetti
Time:
10:34
Summary
Jay Sanguinetti is a research scientist at the University of Arizona and Research Assistant Professor at the University of New Mexico, where he directs the Nice (Non-Invasive Cognitive Enhancement Lab). The NICE lab explores how neuromodulation can augment cognition in humans using a variety of established tools, including transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), transcranial electrical stimulation (tDCS/tACS) and also novel methods like transcranial focused ultrasound (TFUS) and near-infrared light stimulation (photobiomodulation). Jay is presently investigating whether focused ultrasound can be used to augment meditation practice.
Transcript
I thank you for that, and it's really a pleasure to share this weekend with all of you, and really an honor for me. Over the past couple of years, our team has been really searching for neurotechnologies that can dramatically accelerate mindfulness training, and so over the next couple of minutes, what I want to do is explain to you what I mean by that, and also give you a sense of why we're interested in this in the first place. So these are some heartbreaking statistics that you can find on the internet.
This is a counter that's counting in real time the number of opioid deaths since about the end of 2017 and it's especially heartbreaking when you realize the effects that it's having on children who were born into this issue. Now these are only numbers for our home state of Arizona, and so obviously this is a large issue that the whole nation is facing, but just looking at that small snapshot should be motivating enough to want to do something about this issue.