March 20, 2018 9:48 pm

Explore the Impact of Neuropriming and VR Technology in Sports with Gary, Chuck, Brett Wingeier and Michael Casale.

This week on Playing with Science we’re getting in your head. Hosts Gary O’Reilly and Chuck Nice are exploring neuropriming and virtual reality training in sports with two expert guests from the field.

To start, Chuck and Gary chat with Brett Wingeier – Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Halo Neuroscience – about neuropriming. If you don’t know what that is, don’t fear, because in this episode we all learn together. According to Halo Neuroscience, neuropriming is this:

“Neuropriming is the process of using electrical stimulation (such as transcranial direct current stimulation, or tDCS) to increase plasticity in the brain prior to an activity.”

In layman’s terms, it’s basically a system for helping your brain be better at being your brain. You’ll hear Brett explain how the headset Halo has created helps enhance the results of training through brain stimulation. As Brett said, it’s not “brain doping” but more like brain optimization and a way to help squeeze the best results possible from your training.

You’ll also hear Gary and Chuck talk with Michael Casale, Chief Science Officer at StriVR. StriVR is one of the leading VR companies with partners like the PGA Tour, NFL, MLB, and many others. Michael describes the enhancements StriVR offers to an athlete’s training routine, how they get the imagery for their headsets, and what sports and positions work best for their tech, if any. (If StriVR sounds familiar, that’s because we interviewed their CEO in this episode of Playing with Science, How Technology Is Changing Football.)

The world is changing and advancements in technology are re-shaping the way people interact with the environment around them. This episode offers insight into the forefront of neuroscience as applied to the sporting world, and how the evolution of technology ties into an athlete’s goal of achieving their best performance.

Please join us tomorrow night for Brain Training: Neuropriming & VR Technology right here on our website, as well as on our Playing with Science channels on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and TuneIn. If you’re an All-Access subscriber, you can watch or listen to this episode ad-free.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!
–Ian Mullen