DailyDirt: I Want A New Drug… (original) (raw)

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Many mind-altering drugs lead to trouble at some point. But what about treatments that help improve memory or intelligence? Forget those energy drinks, serious scientists are working on ways to improve memory and learning skills. Here are just a few examples.

• A protein named the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) seems to be correlated with exercise and improved memory. But exercise is hard, so there’ll be plenty of BDNF pills and ‘Flowers for Algernon’ situations to look forward to. [url]
• Taking drugs like Ritalin and caffeine might provide a temporary boost to mental abilities, but R&D efforts to discover a pill that permanently improves brain function are likely futile. Pharmaceutical companies benefit more from treatments rather than cures, anyway. [url]
• Air Force researchers have figured out a way to reduce training time by 50% — using mild electrical currents delivered to pilots’ heads. The technique uses transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS), and the treated pilots have been reported to say, “I know Kung Fu” in a Keanu-like way. [url]
• To discover more interesting articles on the human mind, check out what’s currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: air force, bdnf, drugs, learning, memory, ritalin, tdcs, tms, transcranial direct current stimulation