Comments on: Brain-enhancing drugs work by focusing brain activity… for better or worse

By: Troy

Troy — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 08:20:53 +0000

I was wondering if there are any long term affects to these drugs the mind is a powerful tool if we could some how unlock it?

By: Samuel Ochieng

Samuel Ochieng — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 20:33:36 +0000

Am thinking of usigs these drugs, are there any side effects,which drugs have the lowest side effects?

By: Amiya Sarkar

Amiya Sarkar — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:23:01 +0000

To me, decreased use of fuel (glucose) for higher output (efficiency) of the brain is interesting. This inverse relationship is something I didn’t quite anticipate. When we look from the angle of “signal to noise ratio”, it is probably self-explanatory then.

By: caynazzo

caynazzo — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 19:10:31 +0000

I’m unclear on how there’s data showing poor performance by subjects already operating at an ideal focus efficiency. Has this ideal been measured? How does being focused further hurt you? If there’s anything to Alan Carter’s comment, could our thinking be too restrictive even for basic math problems?

By: Doug

Doug — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 23:26:37 +0000

Piracetam is a nootropic that appears to have a lot of research behind it. Wikipedia has 46 references, including animal studies. Being interested in this topic, I’d love a skeptical scientist to examine some of this research.

By: Ed Yong

Ed Yong — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 02:45:37 +0000

So given the comments so far, I really want to clarify that I’m not in any way recommending the use of these drugs! I do think it’s interesting to know how they work and to think about how these mechanisms could inform the ethical debate around their use.
And Sean, I’m not sure about nootropics, but Wikipedia includes methylphenidate (and indeed, coffee) among their ranks. Can anyone else shed some light on this?

By: Alan Carter

Alan Carter — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 02:34:45 +0000

It is important to realize that focussed attention is only good for a limited set of “compliance” based tasks. Anything involving creativity, spontaneously identifying errors, dangers or opportunities, composition, using or producing self-consistency, finding the best balance between multiple considerations and many other kinds of tasks, requires cognitive flexibility. A common experimental test of cognitive flexibility is to give someone three words which could all have the same fourth word prepended to create three compound words. For example, the words might be “shoe”, “drop” and “flake”, and the person might identify “snow” as the fourth word. Drugs which force the brain into focussed attention are only cognitive enhancers in a reactive, institutionalized context where no-one attempts to perform these proactive, problem solving kinds of tasks. It is a very blinkered, and downright wrong point of view.

By: Bart

Bart — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 16:50:17 +0000

Although it will work for a period, it will be more damaging in time. A stimulant stays a stimulant and what comes up must come down.I tried alot of stuff in the past, mainly nootropics, but they easily break the brains balance. Same goes for Ritalin/Aderal and other prescription drugs. Best way to give yourself a cognitive boost is to exercise (physical activity) and to have a regular sleep pattern, don’t smoke and or drink alcohol. God it sounds almost like a preecher Most people mess up their lives one way or the other and are looking for a quick fix.

By: Paul Sunstone

Paul Sunstone — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 15:59:15 +0000

I had a question for you, Ed, but my mind wandered.

By: Sean Nicolle

Sean Nicolle — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 04:01:19 +0000

I may have misunderstood, but does this imply that a person who learns through practice to focus on the task at hand will also reduce the energy demands of the brain?
There is another class of cognition enhancers, coined nootropics, that I am ambiguous and skeptical about. They mechanism of action is uncertain for them, although it should be entirely different than the various mechanisms of stimulants. Some people say they increase communication between the two hemispheres, but the actual benefits of that are uncertain, and research seems limited. If anybody knows of any (relatively) conclusive research on nootropics, I’d be immensely grateful for the sharing of this information.