By: Jaime F. Adriazola
American Graduate University, Washington DC
A sport company is using the “Neuropriming” (term created it by the company) to stimulate the brain’s motor cortex, and in short is designed to improve sports performance. Neuropriming is related to the ‘transcranial direct-current stimulation’ (tDCS) – which in simple terms is using a small electric current via electrodes on the scalp to stimulate specific areas in the brain.
tDCS brain hacking has for a long time been the territory of clinical labs or DIY hardcore biohackers who share their experience and learn from each other – there is even a sub-red it on the topic. Halo Neuroscience has done its own clinical research, and brought a product to market, and opened the technology to the mainstream in a safe and consistent way.
For three years, Halo Sport ™, headphones were provided only to pro and college teams, Olympic contenders and the military. Now, the company has ramped up production, and the super-high-end headphones are ready for public consumption.
The headphones shoot electrical impulses stimulating the brains motor cortex which in turn increases neuroplasticity creating more synchronous connections between neurons and muscles -and thus allegedly improve athletic performance.
In the context of the temporal lobes, this technique makes perfect sense, since the temporal lobes are involved in processing special sounds and memory. Certain types of sounds may activate the temporal lobes and help them process information more efficiently. It’s likely that certain types of “waves sounds” open new pathways into the mind.
"We're up to the challenge of bringing this to the masses," Chao, co-founder of Halo Sport, said at the company's San Francisco headquarters. "Sports science has definitely come a long way."
The US Olympic ski team uses Halo, as do a slew of MLB, NFL and NBA teams. The 2015 NBA champion Golden State Warriors spent this past record-breaking season piloting the headphones. Other world-class athletes, like US Olympic track star Mike Rodgers, swear by them.
In Halo’s own words: “accelerates the optimization of neuromuscular circuitry through training. Improved neuromuscular output leads to more precise, coordinated, and/or explosive movement — whichever the athlete targets during training.”
Nick Davis, a senior lecturer in psychology at Manchester Metropolitan University who has extensively studied tDCS says, “For reasons we don’t really understand, brain cells that are near the positive electrode become a bit more active, and when a brain area is more active, it tends to be more plastic. This is called neuroplasticity, and it relates to the ability to learn things; there is evidence that simple motor actions are learned more readily when they’re done with positive stimulation.”
The directions state to wear the headset and complete a 20 minute neuropriming session before you complete the most intense part of your physical work out, and Halo Sport does not need to be worn during your actual workout. Setting up the primers (the grey electrodes) ready for the priming session can be tricky. They don’t play nice with long hair, and even with short hair can be challenging to get sufficient conductivity to start the session.
Halo Neuroscience claims you will fell a “light tingle” on your head due to the electric current, in reality this felt like more of a sting than a “light tingle” – but it wasn’t unbearable.
The easiest quantifiable improvement was for most exercises, and the less quantifiable results were increased endurance during the first 20 minutes of each workout and increased calories burnt/higher maintained heart rate throughout the sessions (when comparing to similar workouts).
The real energy and improvements seemed to last for about 20 minutes and then seemed to taper off, which means that you should push very hard for the first 20 minutes and then in the last 20 minutes your energy would drop off significantly. It’s not sure if was due to the neuropriming benefits wearing off, or due to pushing yourself too hard due to the benefits in the first 20 minutes and causing you to fatigue. Information has been provided indicating that ‘neuropriming’ was used by the Germany soccer team, during the last World cup.
tDCS (aka. neuropriming) has been shown in clinical settings to improve memory, learning, and intelligence. So I imagine Halo Neuroscience will release products targeted towards different applications in future, and we could actually see a similar device used to improve memory, learning, and intelligence!
Finally we have to mention that tDCS may work more efficiently in combination with ‘Guided Neuro-Psychotherapy”, a new form of therapy that may help athletes increase their potential, and as Doctor Thomas Verny mentioned, “soothing sounds can positively stimulate the brain, and toning balances brain waves, deepens the breath, reduce heart rate, imparts a general sense of well-being, and increase motivation.”
Sources: Halo Neuroscience, Dr. Thomas Verny, Dr. Daniel G. Amen (AMEN clinics, NY), and Dr. Don Campell.
