2023-06-08 18:00:15
BarcelonaA sportsman wears headphones. It is a very common image. But this time he’s not listening to Rosalía’s new song as he gets off the team bus to play a game. Neither is Coldplay’s as he prepares to compete in a swimming pool. By means of electrodes installed in the headphones, he is receiving transcranial stimulation with direct current which, a priori (there are experts who are suspicious of the supposed effects), will allow him to be more concentrated and be more precise during the following minutes, in addition to enhancing the ‘explosiveness, strength and endurance.
“Doping can be considered for at least three reasons: because it can give a competitive advantage, because there is not the same possibility of using it for everyone and because the consequences it can have on the health of athletes are unknown,” he explains to the ARA Alberto Carrio, promoter of a study financed by the BBVA Foundation that aims to analyze the ethical and legal problems of the use of this type of technological resources. Transcranial stimulation is considered to be particularly useful in sports where very high accuracy is required: for example, archery and golf, but also handball, football and basketball at certain times such as a penalty shootout or free kicks. “Nobody’s going to go out on the field or court with it, but it’s used in some locker rooms and training,” says Carrio.
Until now, the categories of doping in the world of sport have been chemical and technological. The first is based on the use of prohibited substances that have led to major scandals, especially in disciplines such as cycling and athletics, and the second, on the use of non-permitted devices. Some high-profile cases were the motors used in professional cyclists’ bicycles and the polyurethane swimsuits that FINA banned in 2009 after a large number of world records were broken in a short period of time by swimmers wearing them. use.
Now, according to Carrio, director of the department of management, law, society and humanities at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra -Barcelona School of Management, a third category of doping has appeared, neurological, which brings two novelties with respect to technological: “It is not technical , but it affects the concentration of athletes, and is not considered doping”. In fact, one of the main objectives of the project, which has the collaboration of professors from other universities such as Oxford, is for the World Anti-Doping Agency to consider brain stimulation as a case of doping.
“The problem is that it’s very difficult to control,” admits Carrio himself. “To know if an athlete has carried out this practice secretly another device should be used to monitor the brain which could also damage the health of the athlete. What is possible and recommended is that the athletes are informed of the dangers transcranial stimulation can pose,” he continues. “At the moment, no body has taken any measures and perhaps when it is done we will be late as happened with the doping of substances”, laments the professor.
Where does the collected data end up?
Another danger associated with the use in sport of transcranial stimulation, a technique that has long been used to improve the condition of people with mental illness, is that there is no clear control over where they go to stop the data collected. “There’s a lot of data being taken from your brain that the company that sells it gets for free. Where does the athlete’s privacy fit into that equation? And that also happens, for example, with the vests that soccer players wear under their shirts during training and matches. A computer collects all this data (you can even take an electrocardiogram on a player during a match), processes it and creates an algorithm without the athlete’s knowledge,” says Carrio. “It must be taken into account that the data that is being collected from an athlete does not just go to a club or a federation, it goes to a private company,” he adds with a warning tone.
One of the companies selling brain stimulation headphones is Silicon Valley-born Halo Neuroscience, and its latest model is the $399 Halo Sport 2. On his website he explains that the effects of this device can begin to be noticed in two or three weeks in the case of professionals and in less time in the case of beginners. You have to wear it for 20 minutes to notice the effect during the next hour. One of the examples they show to demonstrate the efficiency is that of the American Paralympic swimmer Jamal Hill, who says he improved 6 seconds on his mark in the 100 meters thanks to these headphones. “Gain skill, strength and endurance up to 45% faster,” promises the Halo company, which boasts that it’s also trusted by players in the NBA, NFL, and MLB, among others.
Brain stimulation devices for medical use have historically been very bulky: cables, helmets, hats…more cables. But technology has evolved a lot. To the point, as explained at the beginning of this article, that it can already be difficult to differentiate who is listening to the latest trendy reggaeton song from who is receiving brain stimulation to improve their sports performance. “We are one step away from being able to use one extended mind (mind that is not exclusively in the brain or body) via a wireless connection. The brain-computer connection through a receiver as small as a coin already exists,” reports Carrio. The possibilities of the future provoke as much curiosity as discomfort.
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