Selective head cooling intervention improves mental health markers: A multimodal feasibility study

Selective head cooling has attracted increasing attention within brain research in the last decade, particularly for the purposes of psychophysiological symptom relief. Previous research has shown that head cooling after traumatic brain injury can assist in temporary symptom relief, the increase of cerebral blood flow, and the reduction of motor deficits. However, the effects of head cooling on mental health markers in individuals unaffected by traumatic brain injury are relatively unknown. We implemented a one-week intervention of head cooling and assessed cognitive function, mental health status, and electroencephalography patterns pre-intervention, acutely post-intervention, and longitudinally post-intervention, compared to controls. The head cooling group (mean = 4.053%, SD = 3.351) displayed a significantly greater change in relative alpha EEG power after acute head cooling compared to controls (mean = −0.053%, SD = 3.351) (p = 0.004). While both groups experienced reduced depression after the intervention period, the head cooling group (mean = −5.167, SD = 6.365) showed significantly greater symptom relief compared to the control group (mean = −0.500, SD = 1.960) (p = 0.020). An exploratory subgroup analysis revealed descriptive trends regarding the interaction of intervention group and preexisting anxiety diagnosis on treatment-related change of multiple EEG parameters. Overall, the study indicates that selective head cooling shows preliminary trends toward reducing depression symptoms and promoting brain activity related to relaxation in those with anxiety disorders, while significantly modulating EEG signals following repeated treatment.