Is Brain Stimulation the Key to Athletic Performance?

Halo Sport is a brain stimulator that claims to helps you develop muscle memory faster. On their website, they say: 

• You can gain skill, strength, and endurance 45% faster. 
• You can also break through plateaus and set PRs
• Using their product will also increase neuroplasticity and accelerate learning in the motor cortex

And all of this is backed by 4,000+ peer-reviewed studies, trusted by NFL, NBA, MLB, and Olympic athletes. The company has more than 20 patents issued to them. 

Are you intrigued? I was. So, to dig into this device and the science behind it, I invited a Ph.D. biomedical engineer and neuroscientist to the Get-Fit Guy podcast. 

The guest—Dr. Brett Wingeier

Brett: I'm Brett Wingeier. I'm Chief Technical Officer and co-founder of Halo Neuroscience. I started my career in medical devices. I got my Ph.D. in biomedical engineering, electric fields of the brain. I was an athlete in college, which kind of guided part of what we do here at Halo. And then, after spending about 13 years building implantable neurostimulators for epilepsy, my co-founder and I realized that there was a chance to use this amazing type of neurotechnology in a wearable product. We started Halo in the fall of 2013, and we started the company to make Halo Sport, which is a headset that stimulates your brain to help you get better faster when you train.

Yes, you read that right. Brett said that they make a headset which stimulates your brain to help you get better, faster. 

The headset he is talking about looks very much like a normal set of headphones. Big ear muffs cover your ears with a band that goes over the top of your head. And the band, it turns out, is the important part. It's covered in foamy pointed nubs that make contact with your scalp to deliver an electrical current to your cranium. This is not something you'll find on your grandma's headphones. 

Parts of the brain

Let's get back to what Brett meant when he said that the Halo headset stimulates the brain. What part of the brain is actually getting stimulated? Is there a specific part of the brain we use more in sports? 

Brett: What we're stimulating is the primary motor cortex. And fortunately, the part of your brain that controls your body is right under the band of a pair of headphones.

That's convenient!

Brett: Exactly. So, motor neurons go directly from there down to your spinal cord. And, when you learn anything from training, there's a lot of parts of your brain involved—cerebellum, supplementary motor areas—but really that primary motor cortex is...

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