rtnt:
Pills That Can Make You Smarter
Margaret Talbot writes for the New Yorker about the underground world of “neuroenhancing” drugs :
For the moment, people looking for that particular quick fix have a limited choice of meds. But, given the amount of money and research hours being spent on developing drugs to treat cognitive decline, Provigil and Adderall are likely to be joined by a bigger pharmacopoeia. Among the drugs in the pipeline are ampakines, which target a type of glutamate receptor in the brain; it is hoped that they may stem the memory loss associated with diseases like Alzheimer’s. But ampakines may also give healthy people a palpable cognitive boost. A 2007 study of sixteen healthy elderly volunteers found that five hundred milligrams of one particular ampakine “unequivocally” improved short-term memory, though it appeared to detract from episodic memory—the recall of past events. Another class of drugs, cholinesterase inhibitors, which are already being used with some success to treat Alzheimer’s patients, have also shown promise as neuroenhancers. In one study, the drug donepezil strengthened the performance of pilots on flight simulators; in another, of thirty healthy young male volunteers, it improved verbal and visual episodic memory. Several pharmaceutical companies are working on drugs that target nicotine receptors in the brain, in the hope that they can replicate the cognitive uptick that smokers get from cigarettes.
// Follow Read This, Not That on Tumblr / Facebook / Twitter //
Internet addiction has same effect as cocaine on brains: study
This is your brain on the Internet: Messed up where there should be connections for making decisions and having normal emotions.
Results of a new study suggest people who cannot control, cut back or stop their use of the Internet have abnormal white matter structure in the brain similar to what is seen in cocaine and crystal-meth addicts.
According to the study’s authors, as the number of people logging onto cyberspace soars, “Internet addiction disorder” — which is poised to enter the official lexicon of psychiatric illnesses — “is becoming a serious mental-health issue around the world.”
The disorder, as described in the study published this week in the journal PLoS One, is defined as “problematic” or pathological computer use that can cause “marked distress” and interfere with school, work, family and social relationships.
For their study, led by Hao Lei of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Wuhan, researchers scanned the brains of 17 teens and young adults, aged 14 to 24, with Internet addiction and 16 healthy “controls” of similar age.
People were classified as suffering from Internet addiction disorder, or IAD, based on a questionnaire that included the following: Do you feel preoccupied with the Internet? Do you stay online longer than originally intended? Do you feel restless, moody, depressed or irritable when attempting to cut down or stop Internet use?
Their brains may be fried, but their lungs are in fine shape. A new study says that smoking marijuana doesn’t damage your lungs.
Researchers from the University of California and the University of Alabama have concluded a 20-year-long study that shows smoking a joint roughly once a week does no discernible harm to the lungs, suggesting refer smoke is far less harmful than tobacco, reports the AP.
Legalizing medical marijuana has no effect on how often kids get high, a new study suggests.
If legalizing marijuana did in fact compel more kids to get high, one would expect to see Rhode Island teens lighting up at a higher rate after the drug’s legalization in 2006, relative to kids in Massachusetts, where the drug remains illegal.
The study found no such correlation. In both states, teen consumption stayed at around 30%, every year, between 1997 and 2009.
One possible reason for this, Choo speculated, is that those who use medical marijuana aren’t exactly the kind of people teens seek to emulate.
Student to Obama: Legalize Drugs, Prostitution to Stimulate the Economy
