Nature Communications protocol (TUS temporal structure) · Original study

80‑second habit reset (transcranial ultrasound-inspired timing)

Headphone audio that strictly follows the temporal stimulation pattern from the 2025 Nature Communications transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS) study (5 Hz, 20 ms pulses, 10% duty cycle, 80 s), paired with a short guided script for sitting with any urge and rehearsing a different response. This is not ultrasound or treatment — it is simply a ritual to help you pause before acting on a habit you want to adjust.

Status: idle

0:00 / 1:20 Phase: not started yet
0.35

When you notice an urge, start a session. For 80 seconds you listen to the sound and follow the short prompts while choosing something different from your usual habit.

Completed sessions (without early stop): 0

Tight link to the paper:
PRF (pulse repetition frequency): 5 Hz
PD (pulse duration): 20 ms
Period (PRI): 200 ms → duty cycle 10%
Total stimulation duration: 80 s (≈400 pulses)
In code: prf = 5; period = 0.2; pulseDuration = 0.02; totalDuration = 80;

In the original work, TUS uses a carrier around 500 kHz, which is impossible to reproduce via normal headphones. Here we honestly copy only the temporal structure of the stimulation and apply it to an audible carrier (noise or tones). This is not ultrasound, not stimulation of the nucleus accumbens, and not a proven treatment. It is a deliberate ritual: "for 80 seconds I ride out the urge with this sound while choosing a different action."