Cognitive enhancement of today may be the normal of tomorrow

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabrice Jotterand
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Deficits ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Cognitive Enhancement ◽  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Healthy Individuals ◽  
Mental Impairment ◽  
Cognitive Enhancers ◽  
Clinical Interventions

This chapter considers the use of cognitive enhancers in healthy individuals with cognitive deficits caused by mental impairment. The objectives of this analysis are twofold: (1) to outline some of the problems associated with the attempt to distinguish the concept of enhancement from therapy, and (2) to show the relevance of the distinction between two different categories of cognitive enhancement in the attempt to demonstrate why the notion of human enhancement might become part of the therapeutic language of tomorrow. The various conceptualizations of enhancement found in literature, especially as outlined by Chadwick and Agar, are examined in this chapter and the notion of the clinical ideal to evaluate the concept of enhancement in the context of clinical interventions is introduced. In the final section of the chapter, the implications of the clinical ideal in relation to the use of cognitive enhancers in people with mental impairment are considered.

scholarly journals Pharmacological Cognitive Enhancement in Healthy Individuals: A Compensation for Cognitive Deficits or a Question of Personality?

PLoS ONE ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. e0129805 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larissa J. Maier ◽  
Michael D. Wunderli ◽  
Matthias Vonmoos ◽  
Andreas T. Römmelt ◽  
Markus R. Baumgartner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Deficits ◽  
Cognitive Enhancement ◽  
Healthy Individuals ◽  
Pharmacological Cognitive Enhancement

‘Cognitive enhancers’: A qualitative exploration of university students’ experiences with prescription medicines for academic purposes

2021 ◽  
pp. 147821032110619
Author(s):  
Fanny Monnet ◽  
Christina Ergler ◽  
Eva Pilot ◽  
Preeti Sushama ◽  
James Green
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Cognitive Enhancement ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
Discussion Forums ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Cognitive Enhancers ◽  
Qualitative Work ◽  
Prescription Medicines ◽  
Pharmacological Cognitive Enhancement

Qualitative work with students who use prescription medicines for academic purposes is limited. Thus, a more nuanced understanding of tertiary students’ experiences is urgently needed. Our study – which draws on five semi-structured interviews with New Zealand university students, complemented with information from local newspapers, blog entries and discussion forums – reveals students’ motivations and perceived effects, their risk perceptions and provides insights into the circumstances enabling the engagement with prescription medicines for academic purposes. Students were influenced by peers and social norms; and ideas about identity, morality and fairness also played a role for engaging with cognitive enhancers. Students used high levels of stress and workload to justify their use but took individual responsibility for their practices. By taking responsibility in this way, rather than considering it as a product of their environment, they buy into the neoliberal university discourse. Unexpectedly, some participants were already receiving medically justified psychopharmacological treatment but extended and supplemented this with nonmedical use. Others considered their use as being for academic emergencies, and that their low level of use helped manage risks. Overall, students viewed pharmacological cognitive enhancement for improving academic performance as cautious, safe, and morally acceptable. We argue in this paper that a local understanding of students’ motivations, justifications and perceptions of pharmacological cognitive enhancement is required, to tailor policies and support systems better to their needs and behaviours.

scholarly journals The Ethics of Genetic Cognitive Enhancement: Gene Editing or Embryo Selection?

Philosophies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 20
Author(s):  
Marcelo de Araujo
Keyword(s):  
Gene Editing ◽  
Cognitive Enhancement ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Human Enhancement ◽  
Embryo Selection ◽  
Genome Wide Association Studies ◽  
Philosophical Debate ◽  
Human Genomics ◽  
Enhancement Technologies

Recent research with human embryos, in different parts of the world, has sparked a new debate on the ethics of genetic human enhancement. This debate, however, has mainly focused on gene-editing technologies, especially CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats). Less attention has been given to the prospect of pursuing genetic human enhancement by means of IVF (In Vitro Fertilisation) in conjunction with in vitro gametogenesis, genome-wide association studies, and embryo selection. This article examines the different ethical implications of the quest for cognitive enhancement by means of gene-editing on the one hand, and embryo selection on the other. The article focuses on the ethics of cognitive enhancement by means of embryo selection, as this technology is more likely to become commercially available before cognitive enhancement by means of gene-editing. This article argues that the philosophical debate on the ethics of enhancement should take into consideration public attitudes to research on human genomics and human enhancement technologies. The article discusses, then, some of the recent findings of the SIENNA Project, which in 2019 conducted a survey on public attitudes to human genomics and human enhancement technologies in 11 countries (France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Brazil, South Africa, South Korea, and United States).

Cognitive Enhancement in Schizophrenia

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Gilleen
Keyword(s):  
Drug Development ◽  
Cognitive Training ◽  
Cognitive Deficits ◽  
Negative Symptoms ◽  
Cognitive Enhancement ◽  
Cognitive Impairments ◽  
Cognitive Remediation ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Positive Symptoms ◽  
Social Deficits

Schizophrenia is characterized by a constellation of heterogeneous symptoms including hallucinations and delusions, motivational and social deficits, and cognitive impairments. Although positive symptoms have historically been the target for drug development, in recent years, attention has turned to cognitive and negative symptoms. Cognitive deficits in schizophrenia are associated with significant impairments in functional, social, and employment outcomes, and although they are widely researched and relatively well understood, there are no currently approved compounds to treat them. This chapter provides a selective review of the current status of approaches developed to improve cognition in schizophrenia. It covers pharmacological approaches as well as cognitive training and cognitive remediation techniques. It also explores the various study design issues and challenges that contribute to the difficulties in discovering reliable ways to improve the cognitive deficits present in schizophrenia.

The Societal Hazards of Neuroenhancement Technologies

2018 ◽  
pp. 163-196
Author(s):  
Nils-Frederic Wagner ◽  
Jeffrey Robinson ◽  
Christine Wiebking
Keyword(s):  
Electrical Stimulation ◽  
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation ◽  
Magnetic Stimulation ◽  
Cognitive Enhancement ◽  
Emerging Technology ◽  
Transcranial Electrical Stimulation ◽  
Transcranial Stimulation ◽  
Cognitive Enhancers ◽  
Emergent Technologies ◽  
Pharmacological Cognitive Enhancement

Using cognitive enhancement technology is becoming increasingly popular. In another paper, the authors argued that using pharmacological cognitive enhancers is detrimental to society, through promoting competitiveness over cooperation, by usurping personal and social identifies and thus changing our narrative and moral character. In this chapter, the authors seek to expand that argument by looking at an emerging technology that is rapidly gaining popularity, that of transcranial stimulation (TS). Here the authors explore TS via two major methods, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial electrical stimulation (TES). In this, the authors seek to demonstrate that artificial cognitive enhancement is detrimental to society. Furthermore, that the argument can be applied beyond the moral dubiousness of using pharmacological cognitive enhancement, but applied to new, emergent technologies as well. In other words, artificial cognitive enhancement regardless of the technology/medium is detrimental to society.

scholarly journals Neuroethical issues in cognitive enhancement: Modafinil as the example of a workplace drug?

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 239821281881601 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annette B. Brühl ◽  
Camilla d’Angelo ◽  
Barbara J. Sahakian
Keyword(s):  
Lifelong Learning ◽  
Brain Stimulation ◽  
Work Performance ◽  
Cognitive Enhancement ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Healthy People ◽  
Healthy Individuals ◽  
Non Invasive ◽  
Smart Drugs ◽  
And Task

The use of cognitive-enhancing drugs by healthy individuals has been a feature for much of recorded history. Cocaine and amphetamine are modern cases of drugs initially enthusiastically acclaimed for enhancing cognition and mood. Today, an increasing number of healthy people are reported to use cognitive-enhancing drugs, as well as other interventions, such as non-invasive brain stimulation, to maintain or improve work performance. Cognitive-enhancing drugs, such as methylphenidate and modafinil, which were developed as treatments, are increasingly being used by healthy people. Modafinil not only affects ‘cold’ cognition, but also improves ‘hot’ cognition, such as emotion recognition and task-related motivation. The lifestyle use of ‘smart drugs’ raises both safety concerns as well as ethical issues, including coercion and increasing disparity in society. As a society, we need to consider which forms of cognitive enhancement (e.g. pharmacological, exercise, lifelong learning) are acceptable and for which groups under what conditions and by what methods we would wish to improve and flourish.

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