Cognitive enhancement?
Updated on 29 July 2009
The Home Office asks the government's advisory body on drugs to look at the use of "cognitive enhancers". Nina Teggarty reports.
We have had disputes over the acceptability of performance-enhancing drugs, and even, this week, performance-enhancing swimsuits. But what about intelligence-enhancing drugs?
These "cognitive enhancers" are prescribed for conditions like dementia, but used by students to improve their exam performance.
There are many drugs on the market which can boost mental performance. If these drugs can have such an effect, why are they different from stimulants like caffeine? Professor Barbara Sahakian is an expert in cognitive performance. She says the real problem with stimulants like modafinil is that their long term effects are not known.
"It is a great concern that yonger people are using these drugs because especially if using them chronically you could have adverse effects, in young adutls the brain is still ind evelopment so taking a healthy brain and exposing it unncessarily."
So there's a medical issue at stake, but also an ethical issue. Are students who take IQ boosting drugs, cheats?
Won't normal achievements be devalued? The students we spoke to, seemed to think that they would.
