Neuro-Doping and the Value of Effort in Endurance Sports
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Neuro-Doping and the Value of Effort in Endurance Sports Alexandre Erler
Received: 1 February 2020 / Accepted: 16 September 2020 # Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract The enhancement of athletic performance using procedures that increase physical ability, such as anabolic steroids, is a familiar phenomenon. Yet recent years have also witnessed the rise of direct interventions into the brain, referred to as “neuro-doping”, that promise to also enhance sports performance. This paper discusses one potential objection to neuro-doping, based on the contribution to athletic achievement, particularly within endurance sports, of effortfully overcoming inner challenges. After introducing the practice of neuro-doping, and the controversies surrounding it, I describe two major mechanisms some have proposed to explain how it might produce its putative performance-enhancing effects. I then clarify the notion of effort, and its relationship to neuro-doping. I also briefly address common concerns about access and safety. My central argument invokes considerations of effort to maintain that we have at least a significant reason for prohibiting the use of neuro-doping in officially regulated endurance competitions – though only conditional upon a specific set of empirical assumptions. I consider three possible objections: that neuro-doping is no different from widely accepted enhancement methods, that it can make A. Erler Department of Philosophy, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, CUHK, Room 416, Fung King Hey Building, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong SAR A. Erler (*) CUHK Centre for Bioethics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, CUHK, Room 602, Wong Foo Yuan Building, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong SAR e-mail: [email protected]
athletic competition fairer, and that a broader range of factors can compensate for a reduced scope for effort than I recognize. I ultimately conclude that these objections do not refute the argument from effort, while stressing nonetheless that this argument applies more clearly to hypothetical improved forms of neuro-doping than to existing ones, and is not meant to offer a final overall verdict on how neuro-doping should be regulated. Keywords Effort . Enhancement . Motivation . Neurodoping . Sport . tDCS
Introduction: What Is Neuro-Doping? The enhancement of athletic performance using procedures (typically banned by anti-doping agencies) that increase physical ability, such as anabolic steroids, is a familiar phenomenon. Yet recent years have also witnessed the rise of direct interventions into the brain (as opposed to the rest of the body) that promise to also enhance performance in sports – what is now referred to as “neuro-doping” [1]. One example are certain psychoactive drugs, like amphetamine or modafinil [1]. But a more advanced intervention that has been attracting increasing attention in this context, and is most closely associated with the phrase “neuro-doping”, is transcranial electrical stimulation of the brain (tES), and particularly transcranial direc
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