Neurotechnology describes the field of technology used to manipulate and measure brain processes. In the future, will athletes increasingly begin to neurotechnology methods to get an edge over their competition? Athletes may be able to use non-invasive brain stimulation to alter their brain functioning for a beneficial effect. Already scientists have used a brain stimulation method called transcranial direct current stimulation tDCS (a non-invasive way to electrically stimulate the brain) to reduce the fatigue associated with exercise.



Transcranial direct current stimulation uses a small amount of electricity to stimulate the brain. It can be used on a person while they are wide awake and conscious. Neuromuscular fatigue is defined as the exercise dependent decrease in a person's ability of thier muscle fibres to generate some force. Researchers discovered that anodal tDCS (that can activate localized brain areas) was able to decrease the subject's fatigue related muscle pain. The scientists also found that anodal tDCS was able to improve the endurance time by modulating directly the brain's excitabiliy. It was able to increase motivation, decrease fatigue related muscle pain and finally improving muscle coupling.

Another neurotechnology method to manipulate the brain is transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Transcranial magnetic stimulation uses electromagnetism to stimulate specific areas of the brain. In the past it has been used to improve the working memory deficits that are associated with sleep deprivation. Working memory is a person's general concentration and ability to store/manipulate information. So this transcranial magnetic stimulation in theory might be able improve an athletes concentration when they are fatigued. Transcranial magnetic stimulation could also be used to enhance a person's regular concentration as well.

Deep transcranial magnetic stimulation can reach deeper into the brain than conventional TMS. Deep TMS may be able to non-invasively stimulate the reward related regions of the brain. Doing this type of brain manipulation may actually enable researchers to artificially induce a stimulant or euphoric like effect in an athlete by selectively activating specific brain regions. This type of effect would be beneficial for a long term endurance type of sport where a huge boost in mood is necessary for having an optimal performance. Deep TMS may also be used to target a variety of different regions to improve specific performance tasks.

The banned substance list that goes along with the recent olympic games does not actually have any mention about using non-invasive brain stimulation. However both transcranial direct current stimulation or transcranial magnetic stimulation may eventually find increasing use by certain athletes in the future. Right now, it still may be a little too early to actually assess how useful these new types of neurtechnologies would be for athlete's performance.

As for cheating, using these neurotechnologies would be almost impossible to detect. Their wouldn't be any drug tests that could detect when a person had undergone this type of treatment. The on and only plausible method of detecting this type of brain manipulation might be from a brain scan. So using neurotechnology could be a very effective way of brain doping while at the same time sidestepping negative penalties from a regulatory body. Using these types of brain stimulation methods for athletes is all speculative of course, and it is currently unclear if any of these types of brain manipulation would actually have enough of an effect on performance to be worthwhile.