cognitive enhancers.. futuristic mental steroids?

[PoorMD]

One of the topics in my neuro block (I am MSI) is Long term potentiation LTP, and the relationship that it plays with memory encoding. and I must say its amazing stuff.

I don't want to create a thread that is too technical to be fun, so I will do my best to avoid the technical side of things.

Instead I wanted to approach the issue of cognitive enhancers from the more ethical angle.. What do you all think? If you could take a drug that enhanced your memory encoding capacity 100 fold, would you do it? Assuming the side-effects are minimal, of course.

I think this could change the entire human race. we could spend our lives doing something different (such as painting, writing books, enjoying the outdoors, cultivating land, watching young animals grow old, spending time with family) as apposed to the meat grinder life that is medical school (I never see my old friends, I can no longer paint, no time for pets, ditto for family)... All because we already took a cognitive enhancer, studied for 10 minutes, and learned everything we needed to know from the Haines atlas or the Kingsley text of neuroscience..


(If you understand the concept behind LTP or plasticity of synaptic transmissions and feel like sharing, PLEASE do so!!)

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[stochastic]

The possibility and ethics of such a situation has been talked about: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=260203

If you like the technical side of LTP and synaptic plasticity, check out this article:http://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...a9dd99af15c7b6c4f5e10999580&ie=/sdarticle.pdf

This is just a review of two other articles that are in the same issue. The novel mechanism for synaptic plasticity involving memory proposed here is just amazing. Better than the first time one sees the MATRIX. Hopefully you have talked about Creuztfeld-Jakob disease already; if not, look it up. You'll be blown away!

 

[Astrocyte]

The more you learn, the more you have to learn. If medical school takes an average person who takes enhancers one year to finish, I will bet med school will only be one year long. Then you move on to residency, attending, research. You will do more, but I doubt you will have much more free time, as long as you want to be good at what you do.

Your scenario only works if you have the advantage and others don't.