Psychopharmacology and Learning
Can we manipulate our neuro-chemical makeup to make us smarter?
The desire to maximize human potential is nothing new. The study of neuroscience does not fall short of researching this ideology. Our growing potential to maximize brain power may very well shape our history of learning. One of the leading fields of study in this domain, which focuses on neuro-chemically altering neurofunction to improve learning and intelligence, is known as psychopharmacology.
The psychopharmacopia of our time encompasses a generation of highly selective drugs that can target specific neuro-chemical events that moderate reactions linked with cognition.
While the use of these drugs is generally well accepted when used to treat certain disabilities, there is much controversy surrounding their use for cognitive enhancement in healthy individuals.
Medically known as nootropics and commonly known as "study drugs", this classification of drugs may include a wide variety of substances. However, in the last decade, the use of off-the-counter medications normally prescribed for conditions like Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have dramatically increased among students. In the last year, about 30% of North American university students have engaged in taking “study drugs” like methylphenidate (Ritalin) and amphetamine (Adderall) (Maier et al, 2017).
Are cognitive enhancement drugs too good to be true?
Let’s take a closer look into this psychopharmacopia and explore how these drugs affect cognition….
Please refer to this video Jasmine produced on psychopharmacology and learning
Socio-cultural Considerations
Our society has become highly competitive, making the need to perform beyond a baseline state an evolving trend. Let’s imagine a world where the risks are mitigated and access to performance enhancing substances is open – after all, we are not far from it. A controversial opinion piece published in Nature in 2008 by Greely et al, suggests that we embrace the use of cognitive enhancing substances, arguing that this is how our we will innovate humanity. If this were the case, there would inevitably be pressure for students or employees to enhance their cognitive abilities in order to keep up or attempt to get ahead, leading to coercion. Perhaps teachers and employers would acknowledge the benefits of having highly productive students/employees further exacerbating an unrealistic playing field.
For now, the greatest user of these drugs is the self-medicating undergraduate student with a B average trying to pass. There remains more research to be done before we even consider a culture in which maximizing brain power through psychopharmaceuticals is the social norm.
A popular theory addressing the use of psychostimulants among college and university students is the self medication hypothesis. This hypothesis suggests that students take certain measures to reduce any form of cognitive interference and compensate for what they believe to be cognitive deficits despite the risks. There is a possibility that some students turn to psychostimulants to self medicate as a result of living with undiagnosed ADHD. In any case, the overall consensus is that people want to perform better, get a higher GPA and ultimately succeed.
Discussion
Consider this quote by Maia Szalavitz from TIME Magazine regarding the future use of cognitive enhancements: “That is perhaps the bioethicist's greatest concern — that cognitive enhancement may be wrong not because it is physically risky or because it creates an unlevel playing field but because it redefines the nature of human achievement itself. As Leon Kass wrote for the President's Council on Bioethics in a 2003 report on enhancement, "We must live, or try to live, as true men and women, accepting our finite limits, cultivating our given gifts, and performing in ways that are humanly excellent. To do otherwise is to achieve our most desired results at the ultimate cost: getting what we seek or think we seek by no longer being ourselves." That is, we cheat ourselves out of ownership of our own success and damage our sense of self.”
We want to hear from you. Please address all or any of the following questions on the discussion board:
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Why do you feel there is such a prevalence of stimulant pharmaceutical usage among students in our culture?
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How do we deal with increasing levels of coercion in the workplace and in academia that pressure people to turn to cognitive enhancing drugs?
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Like performance enhancing drugs in sports, should the use of cognitive enhancing drugs be considered cheating?
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Do you think there is there a future in the research of cognitive enhancement drugs?
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