4 ms·

Brain stimulation technology being used in elite athletics

18 points by jtr1 10y ago

0xdeadbeefbabe 10y ago
Musicians ought to be interested too.
kolbe 10y ago
snake oil.
SCAQTony 10y ago
Let's stretch the imagination and presume this hyperbole is true, if so, it would be nothing more than the moral equal of doping.
- lloyd-christmas 10y ago
  Towards the bottom, it mentions that the World Anti-Doping Agency is monitoring it: if tDCS’s benefits are verified, WADA will judge the technology on two other criteria: whether it risks the health of the athlete, and whether it violates “the spirit of sport.” A positive finding in either category is grounds for a ban.
Dowwie 10y ago
It's obviously not working with Ryan Lochte
dogma1138 10y ago
This might be pseudoscience however what will happen when crispr/cas9 gets off the ground? You can modify selected DNA segments in selected cells this is going to be pretty much untraceable. One can inject them selves with some serum that improves lactic acid resistance or w/e and there will be no way to detect it.
- fapjacks 10y ago
  Since some athletic governing bodies have already gone down the rabbit hole of telling women athletes that they need to have body parts removed ("in order to normalize testosterone levels"), I suspect that if your genes are too good, you'll be suspected of having modified them, and therefore banned.
  - dogma1138 10y ago
    That's a completely different case with a lot of unclear things. The Olympic commission did run genetic and sex tests on her and the results were not published. It looks like there is some genetic anomalies however as the results are secret and she will not publish them on her own it's hard to know if she is indeed intersex or not. Males and Female are intentionally segregated in sports because it would be utterly unfair for them to compete on against each other. Check virtually every sport and you'll see that the slowest scores in almost every event for men beat the record for the respective women's event. You simply can't allow cross gender whether it's transgender or intersex individuals to choose under which gender they would compete, oddly enough it would be harmful to women if intersex and transgender athletes could compete in women's events. I'm all up for having a 3rd or even 4th gender events set up if there is a sufficiently large pool of athletes to compete in these events.
    - fapjacks 10y ago
      No, it's not "a completely different case". It's going to come down to (surprise!) genetic testing. My comment specifically addresses a possible scenario when the Olympic commission can't identify whether or not someone has had outside assistance in their performance. Just like they did here, I'm guessing they'll err on the side of caution and forbid that person from competing.
- arcticfox 10y ago
  You can theoretically test for the vectors and byproducts used to insert the DNA segments. Also it seems like you could theoretically sequence an athlete as a baseline and then compare future segments to their original DNA.

18 points by jtr1 10y ago

0xdeadbeefbabe 10y ago

Musicians ought to be interested too.

kolbe 10y ago

snake oil.

SCAQTony 10y ago

Let's stretch the imagination and presume this hyperbole is true, if so, it would be nothing more than the moral equal of doping.

lloyd-christmas 10y ago
Towards the bottom, it mentions that the World Anti-Doping Agency is monitoring it: if tDCS’s benefits are verified, WADA will judge the technology on two other criteria: whether it risks the health of the athlete, and whether it violates “the spirit of sport.” A positive finding in either category is grounds for a ban.

Dowwie 10y ago

It's obviously not working with Ryan Lochte

dogma1138 10y ago

This might be pseudoscience however what will happen when crispr/cas9 gets off the ground? You can modify selected DNA segments in selected cells this is going to be pretty much untraceable. One can inject them selves with some serum that improves lactic acid resistance or w/e and there will be no way to detect it.

fapjacks 10y ago
Since some athletic governing bodies have already gone down the rabbit hole of telling women athletes that they need to have body parts removed ("in order to normalize testosterone levels"), I suspect that if your genes are too good, you'll be suspected of having modified them, and therefore banned.
- dogma1138 10y ago
  That's a completely different case with a lot of unclear things. The Olympic commission did run genetic and sex tests on her and the results were not published. It looks like there is some genetic anomalies however as the results are secret and she will not publish them on her own it's hard to know if she is indeed intersex or not. Males and Female are intentionally segregated in sports because it would be utterly unfair for them to compete on against each other. Check virtually every sport and you'll see that the slowest scores in almost every event for men beat the record for the respective women's event. You simply can't allow cross gender whether it's transgender or intersex individuals to choose under which gender they would compete, oddly enough it would be harmful to women if intersex and transgender athletes could compete in women's events. I'm all up for having a 3rd or even 4th gender events set up if there is a sufficiently large pool of athletes to compete in these events.
  - fapjacks 10y ago
    No, it's not "a completely different case". It's going to come down to (surprise!) genetic testing. My comment specifically addresses a possible scenario when the Olympic commission can't identify whether or not someone has had outside assistance in their performance. Just like they did here, I'm guessing they'll err on the side of caution and forbid that person from competing.
arcticfox 10y ago
You can theoretically test for the vectors and byproducts used to insert the DNA segments. Also it seems like you could theoretically sequence an athlete as a baseline and then compare future segments to their original DNA.