The San Francisco Giants Have Adopted Performance-Enhancing Headphones. Wait–What?

We all know that music can have an affect on athletic performance. This, however, is a new one on me.

We might want to keep an eye on the San Francisco Giants this season. The team confirms that they’ve switched headphones for their players. No more Beats for the team. This year, it’s all about Halo headphones.

These cans use a technology called “transcraniel direct current stimulation,” which basically shoots electrical currents through the brain, a process called “neuropriming.” The company says this improves athletic performance. According to their website, “Halo Sport is the first-ever headset that stimulates the part of your brain responsible for muscle movement.” From CNET:

We’re trying to improve our team speed and explosiveness,” Geoff Head, the Giants’ sports scientist specialist, said during a phone interview from the team’s spring training in Scottsdale, Arizona. “And we’ve already seen some improvement using the headphones.”

Many athletes use technology and wearable devices in an effort to gain an edge on the playing field. The announcement by the Giants and Halo comes about three weeks after the MLB said it’s allowing players the option to wear Whoop biometric wrist monitors to track heart rate and fatigue during games this season.

The Giants are the first major professional sports team to publicly acknowledge its testing Halo Sport headphones. More than 50 pro and college teams use the device, but many prefer not to be revealed for competitive reasons, said Halo co-founder Daniel Chao.

Fascinating. You can read more here and then watch this video.