What would you do to get an edge – at work, in the gym, in life? Would you sacrifice a chunk of your salary? Adopt a strict regimen of supplements? Would you even subject your brain to emerging technologies that may or may not work? Professional athletes have been the early adopters in the brain-training space. NFL quarterbacks are entering flow states with help from Dune-like, Bene Gesserit-style instruction, while basketball players fine-tune their hand-eye coordination with virtual reality concentration exercises. These tools are pricey, but the tech is now trickling down to us civilians.
WORDS: PETER FLAX. ILLUSTRATION: JASON SPEAKMAN. PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY OF BRANDS
‘The democratisation of the science is driving consumer interest,’ says cognitive neuroscientist Greg Appelbaum, a psychiatry professor at the University of California, San Diego. ‘There’s no doubt the technology has got cheaper.’