It would be hard to imagine improving on the intelligence of computer engineer Bjoern Stenger, a doctoral candidate at Cambridge University. Yet for several hours, a pill seemed to make him even brainier.Participating in a research project, Stenger downed a green gelatin cap containing a drug called modafinil. Within an hour, his attention sharpened. So did his memory. He aced a series of mental-agility tests. If his brainpower would normally rate a 10, the drug raised it to 15, he said.“I was quite focused,” said Stenger. “It was also kind of fun.”The age of smart drugs is dawning. Modafinil is just one in an array of brain-boosting medications - some already on pharmacy shelves and others in development - that promise an era of sharper thinking through chemistry.These drugs may change the way we think. And by doing so, they may change who we are.Long-haul truckers and Air Force pilots have long popped amphetamines to ward off drowsiness. Generations of college students have swallowed over-the-counter caffeine tablets to get through all-nighters. But such stimulants provide only a temporary edge, and their effect is broad and blunt - they boost the brain by juicing the entire nervous system.The new mind-enhancing drugs, in contrast, hold the potential for more powerful, more targeted and more lasting improvements in mental acuity. Some of the most promising have reached the stage of testing in human subjects and could become available in the next decade, brain scientists say.“It’s not a question of ‘if’ anymore. It’s just a matter of time,” said geneticist Tim Tully, a researcher at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, N.Y., and developer of a compound called HT-0712, which has shown promise as a memory enhancer. The drug soon will be tested in human subjects.The new brain boosters stem in part from research to develop treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, spinal cord injuries, schizophrenia and other conditions. But they also reflect rapid advances in understanding the processes of learning and memory in healthy people.In the last two decades, scientists have made important discoveries about which regions of the brain perform specific functions and how those regions work together to absorb, store and retrieve information. Researchers also have begun to grasp how and where neurotransmitters are manufactured and which ones help perform which mental tasks.“There are things cooking here that couldn’t have been done one to two decades ago,” said James L. McGaugh, former director of the University of California, Irvine’s Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory.Research has received further stimulus from a deep-pocketed investor - the U.S. military, which is looking for ways to help pilots and soldiers stay sharp under the stress and exhaustion of combat.
