Neuro-doping: The rise of another loophole to get around anti-doping policies

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of the emerging neuro-doping technology and its ability to enhance athletic performance, and to examine the physical and ethical risks associated with the technology. This study also suggests that sports governing bodies charged with anti-doping regulation begin to consider prohibiting the application of electrical stimulus to the brain as a means of physical manipulation aimed at enhancing performance.

Keywords:

• neuro doping
• anti-doping policy
• transcranial direct-current stimulation
• world anti-doping agency

Public Interest statement

There are some athletes who aim to improve their levels of performance quickly so as to take advantage of their rankings or positions within their respective sports. This is why doping has evolved at a fairly constant rate. For this reason, The World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) has worked to prevent doping from ruining the “spirit-of-sports.” However, in 2016, a new doping technology, “neuro-doping,” arose. This technique uses Transcranial Direct-Current Stimulation (tDCS), which is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique that delivers an electrical stimulus to a particular part of the brain, is a potential tool for clinical treatment and may serve as a means of performance enhancement in the context of sports competition. However, tDCS is still in its experimental stage, and may result in safety problems that are as yet unknown; in addition, there are a number of ethical concerns regarding technique.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kwangho Park

Kwangho Park is a doctoral student in the academic field of sport management. He is, at present, working on several studies having to do with the utilization of Virtual Reality (VR) in a sport environment and the use of VR in advertising. This current research is intended to prevent the exploitation of a loophole (related to neuro-doping), which would enable athletes to get around the World Anti-Doping Agency’s anti-doping policy. If this loophole remains, and if it is exploited, it may effectively serve to undermine the integrity of the sports environment. This study can help policy-makers who are a part of anti-doping agencies to better understand the emergence of neuro-doping, and it can assist them in implementing policy that bans this newly emerging means of doping.