smart drugs

Time to update the regulatory framework for cognitive enhancement–especially nootropics?

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smart-drugs-nootropicsSeek­ing an edge, these brain hack­ers mix up risky chem­i­cal cock­tails for break­fast (Stat):

“…A 31-year-old entre­pre­neur, Gutiér­rez has thrown him­self into the emerg­ing move­ment of body hack­ing — or, more pre­cise­ly, brain hack­ing. He’s a con­nois­seur of “nootrop­ics,” a broad cat­e­go­ry that includes phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal drugs, dietary sup­ple­ments, and do-it-your­self con­coc­tions, all of them meant to turn the brain up a notch. [Read more…] about Time to update the reg­u­la­to­ry frame­work for cog­ni­tive enhancement–especially nootropics?

To reach your cognitive potential across the whole lifespan, augment healthy lifestyle with brain training

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BrainFitnessTrajectoryCan You Get Smarter? (The New York Times):

“A few years back, a joint study by BBC and Cam­bridge Uni­ver­si­ty neu­ro­sci­en­tists put brain train­ing to the test…There was, how­ev­er a glim­mer of hope for sub­jects age 60 and above…Unlike the younger par­tic­i­pants, old­er sub­jects showed a sig­nif­i­cant improve­ment in ver­bal rea­son­ing [Read more…] about To reach your cog­ni­tive poten­tial across the whole lifes­pan, aug­ment healthy lifestyle with brain training

Growing awareness of the opportunities and risks posed by pharmacological cognitive enhancement (aka “smart drugs”)

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Nootropics

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More research need­ed on use of ‘smart drugs’ by healthy peo­ple (Med­ical News):

“Drugs such as methylphenidate and modafinil, mar­ket­ed as Rital­in and Provig­il respec­tive­ly, are used by some healthy indi­vid­u­als in order to boost their cog­ni­tive per­for­mance, despite a gen­er­al lack of knowl­edge about [Read more…] about Grow­ing aware­ness of the oppor­tu­ni­ties and risks posed by phar­ma­co­log­i­cal cog­ni­tive enhance­ment (aka “smart drugs”)

Why do steroid-taking athletes pay attention to their physical exercise regimens?

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brainTo Boost Brain Health and Per­for­mance, Har­ness Neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty The Right Way (Cre­ativ­i­ty Post):

“…How­ev­er, despite large invest­ments, evi­dence that “smart” drugs or brain sup­ple­ments actu­al­ly work is scarce at the present. The [Read more…] about Why do steroid-tak­ing ath­letes pay atten­tion to their phys­i­cal exer­cise regimens?

To boost brainpower, ignore “smart drugs” and focus on experiences that harness neuroplasticity the right way

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brain_scans

Tra­di­tion­al sci­en­tif­ic ideas cast the human brain as a fixed and essen­tial­ly lim­it­ed sys­tem that only degrades with age. This view saw the brain as a rigid machine in many ways, pret­ty much set after child­hood. By con­trast, we have now come to appre­ci­ate that the human brain is actu­al­ly a high­ly dynam­ic and con­stant­ly reor­ga­niz­ing sys­tem, capa­ble of [Read more…] about To boost brain­pow­er, ignore “smart drugs” and focus on expe­ri­ences that har­ness neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty the right way

Use and misuse of ADHD drugs and nootropics among teenagers and toddlers

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Human-brain-pillsRital­in may pose brain risks for young peo­ple with­out ADHD, study shows (Fox News):

“Smart” drugs, like Rital­in, also known as nootrop­ics, are known to increase a person’s atten­tion span, mem­o­ry and abil­i­ty to stay alert. As a result, they have become increas­ing­ly abused by stu­dents seek­ing an extra edge in their stud­ies. Accord­ing to a report from The Part­ner­ship at Drugfree.org and the MetLife Foun­da­tion, approx­i­mate­ly 1.3 mil­lion Amer­i­can teenag­er [Read more…] about Use and mis­use of ADHD drugs and nootrop­ics among teenagers and toddlers