Webmaster rambling and mental notes
Cosmetic Neurology
4/26/2009

The New Yorker has a long piece examining the growing trend of healthy people, not diagnosed with any mental condition, taking drugs that enhance mental functioning, including Adderall and Provigil. The profiles include a Harvard student, a adept poker player, a number of brain researchers, and a self-described transhumanist. "Zack [Lynch]... has a book being published this summer, called 'The Neuro Revolution'... In coming years, he said, scientists will insight the brain better, and we'll have improved neuroenhancers that some people will use therapeutically, others because they are 'on the borderline of needing them therapeutically,' and others purely 'for music and more advantage.' ... Even if today's smart drugs aren't as puissant as such drugs may someday be, there are plenty of give the third degree* that need to be asked about them. How much do they indeed help? Are they potentially harmful or addictive? Then, there's the examine of what we mean by 'smarter.' Could enhancing one kind of headwork exact a toll on others? All these talk need proper scientific answers, but for now much of the dialectical is taking place furtively, among the increasing number of Americans who are stooging* daily experiments on their own brains. ... [A cognitive analyst said,] 'Cognitive psychologists have found that there is a trade-off between attentional focus and creativity. And there is some meaning that suggests that individuals who are better able to focus on one thing and filter out distractions tend to be less creative. ... I'm a little concerned that we could be raising a generation of very focused accountants.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.


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Mark

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