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Follow on Google News | Experts Report on Smart Drugs and the Future of Cognitive EnhancementBy: PROFIDERALL Bringing together policy-makers with leading experts from across engineering, science, social science, the humanities and industry, the Academies report focused on those new, cutting edge technologies that have the best potential to extend an individual’s mental capacities beyond their current limits. Human Enhancement? Human enhancement refers to endeavors that are designed to restore or improve human performance, thus overcoming the current limits of one’s human body. Advances in fields such as biotechnology, engineering, neuroscience and computing bring the potential for remarkable human enhancements. In particular, through the use of cognitive enhancers or ‘Smart Drugs (http://www.profiderall.com).’ Cognitive enhancement of healthy individuals There are several ways to enhance cognition in humans. Education and physical exercise are two well-established cognition enhancers (but not considered in detail by the Academies). Newer cognitive enhancers are emerging that could also improve a range of mental faculties such as memory and concentration in healthy individuals. Professor Barbara Sahakian, Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology at the University of Cambridge, reported that researchers are increasingly seeing many of these drugs being used by healthy individuals, among whom there is evidence that they do improve performance. For example, stimulant drugs exert their effects in a baseline-dependent manner, so stimulants will improve low performance in individuals regardless of whether the individual is a healthy volunteer or has ADHD. With up to 16% of students in the United States already using such cognitive enhancers to improve performance. Getting an edge As expected, The Royal Society concluded that education is the ‘most broadly and consistently successful cognitive enhancer’. No argument there. The attraction of other cognitive enhancers, then, might lie in their ability to help users gain a small but significant competitive edge (http://www.profiderall.com/ In fact, The Academy of Medical Sciences reported that small percentage increments in performance can lead to significant improvements in functional outcome; it is conceivable that a 10% (http://www.acmedsci.ac.uk/ Science agrees: Smart Drugs are changing the way people work It’s predicted that the work place as we know it will evolve over the next decade. How and where we work are likely to be dramatically different, with cognitive enhancement technologies potentially making a significant contribution. Widespread use of Smart Drugs, already a strong trend with overachievers, will further impact an individual’s ability to learn or perform tasks, leading to higher performance expectations. With growing pressures being put on employees to be more motivated, and able to work in increasingly demanding conditions – these overachievers will only continue to raise the bar. Barbara Sahakian, Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology at the University of Cambridge, offered this example: “Imagine two surgeons, one who has been drinking coffee to stay alert and has hand tremors and the other who has been taking cognitive enhancing drugs and has no tremors and is alert. Which would you prefer to operate?” Conclusion As our understanding of the brain improves, it is informing both the desire for and the science of the development of new cognitive enhancers. The use of these enhancements raises a range of scientific, engineering, social, political, ethical, economic and regulatory questions. But one thing is for sure… human beings will continually look for ways to enhance mental performance and overcome our physical limitations. In short, we all want to get better, smarter and stronger. It’s in our nature. End
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