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Pharmacological Enhancement of Cognition

Many neuropsychiatric illnesses occur on a spectrum that includes normal levels of functioning. This raises the question: if medications can improve cognition in people with cognitive impairment, what can they do for normal healthy people?

Two main cognitive systems have been targeted for pharmacological enhancement: attention and memory. Stimulant drugs such as methyphenidate (Ritalin) and amphetamine (Aderall) improve the attention more>>

British Medical Association. (2007). Ethics department: Boosting your brainpower: ethical aspects of cognitive enhancements.

Chatterjee, A. (2004). Cosmetic neurology: the controversy over enhancing movement, mentation, and mood. Neurology, 63 (6): 968-974.

* Chamberlain, S.R., Muller, U., Robbins, T.W. & Sahakian, B.J. (2006). Neuropharmacological modulation of cognition. Current Opinion in Neurology, 19: 607-612.

Diller, L.H. (1996). The run on Ritalin. Attention deficit disorder and stimulant treatment in the 1990s. Hastings Center Report, 26: 12-18.

Farah, M. J., Illes, J., Cook-Deegan, R., Gardner, H., Kandel, E., King, P., Parens, E., Sahakian, B. J., and Wolpe, P. R. (2004). Neurocognitive enhancement: What can we do? What should we do? Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 5: 421-425.

Farah, M.J. and Wolpe, P.R. (2004). Monitoring and manipulating brain function: New neuroscience technologies and their ethical implications. Hastings Center Report, 34(3): 35-45.

Flower, R. (2004). Lifestyle drugs: pharmacology and the social agenda. Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, 25:182-185.

Fukuyama, F. (2002). Our Posthuman Future. Farrar, Strauss and Giroux.

Glannon, W. (2006). Psychopharmacology and memory. Journal of Medical Ethics, (32): 74-78.

Hall, S.S. (2003). The quest for a smart pill. Scientific American, September: 54-65.

Kass, L. (2003). Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness. Harper Collins.

Kolber, A.J. (2006). Therapeutic forgetting: the legal and ethical implications of memory dampening. Vanderbilt Law Review, 59 (5): 1559-1615.

*Lynch, G.  (2004).  AMPA receptor modulators as cognitive enhancers.  Current Opinion in Pharmacology, 4: 4-11.

Makris, A.P., Rush, C.R. Frederich, R.C., Taylor, A.C. & Kelly, T.H. (2007). Behavioral and subjective effects of d-amphetamine and modafinil in healthy adults. Experimental Clinical Psychopharmacology, 15 (2): 123-133.

McCabe, S.E. et al. (2005).  Non-medical use of prescription stimulants among US college students: prevalence and correlates from a national survey.  Addiction, 99: 96-106.

Mehlman, M.J.  (2004). Cognition-enhancing drugs.  The Milbank Quarterly, 82: 483-506.

* Mehta, M. A., Owen, A. M., et al. (2000). Methylphenidate enhances working memory by modulating discrete frontal and parietal lobe regions in the human brain. Journal of Neuroscience, 20: RC65.

* O'Leary JC. (1993). An analysis of the legal issue surrounding the forced use of Ritalin: protecting a child's right to "just say no. New England Law Review, 27: 1173-209.

Parens, E. (Ed.) (2000). Enhancing Human Traits: Social and Ethical Implications. Georgetown University Press.

Rose, S.P.R. (2002). "Smart Drugs": Do they work? Are they ethical? Will they be legal? Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 3: 975-979.

Sahakian, B. & Morein-Zamir, S. (2007). Professor's little helper. Nature, 450: 1157-1159.

Singh, I. (2005). Will the "Real Boy" Please Behave: Dosing Dilemmas for Parents of Boys with ADHD. The American Journal of Bioethics, 5(3): 34-47.

Turner, D. and Sahakian, B. (2006). The cognition enhanced classroom. In P. Miller & J. Wilsdon Better Humans? The politics of human enhancement and life extension. London: Demos, p. 79-85.

Wheelis, M. and Dando, M. (2005). Neurobiology: a case study of the imminent militarization of biology. International Review of the Red Cross, 87(859): 553-571.

Wilson, J.S. (2004). Mediums and Messages: an Argument AGainst Biotechnical Enhancements of Soldiers in the Armies of Liberal Democracies. Ethical Perspectives, 11(2-3): 189-197.