Brain stimulating headphones are being worn by cyclist Dan Chao and by using these on a stationary bike, his performance has improved on his normal bike. He is a co-founder of Halo Neuroscience, and their Halo Sports headphones pass electric currents through the head by reaching the motor cortex.
Known as transcranial direct current stimulation, the neurons fire more quickly. New connections are made, and athletes training will improve. Scientific research carried out over 15 years shows that this can happen, and it can be beneficial to those who have suffered strokes and also help with learning motor skills. There are however fears that the product should not yet be sold on the market. It is suggested that improved athleticism has not been proved, and it is not yet safe enough to take forward.
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Chao has been focusing on the use of the headphones to stimulate the motor cortex, and the intention is to publish all of the findings in peer- reviewed journals. At the moment, all that is published is a small amount of data on the Halo website. Piano playing is said to be affected as healthy volunteers learned a sequence of chords and another group found that their strength increased when holding an item between the index finger and thumb.
$9 million funding has led to Lux Capital and Andreessen Horowitz selling a service package of Halo Sport to organizations, and the first purchaser was the US military. However, a psychiatric professor at the North Carolina School of Medicine feels there should not be sales due to lack of research.