Lanni Cristina, Lenzken Silvia C, Pascale Alessia, Del Vecchio Igor, Racchi Marco, Pistoia Francesca, Govoni Stefano
Department of Experimental and Applied Pharmacology, Centre of Excellence in Applied Biology, University of Pavia, Viale Taramelli 14, 27100 Pavia, Italy.
Pharmacol Res. 2008 Mar;57(3):196-213. doi: 10.1016/j.phrs.2008.02.004. Epub 2008 Feb 15.
Memory, attention and creativity represent three different cognitive domains, which are interconnected and contribute the "mental performance" of an individual. Modern neuroscience has investigated some of the neuronal circuits and of the neurotransmitters and molecular events underlying the above-mentioned cognitive functions. Within this renewed reference context, some of the properties of the components of the remedies to increase mental performance have been studied and validated in experimental models and, to date, these substances are named "smart drugs", "memory enhancing drugs" or "nootropic drugs" (from the Greek root noos for mind and tropein for toward). Recently pharmaceutical industries are increasingly focusing on the research for potential substances in this field: several "smart drugs" are in clinical trials and could be on the market in few years. Furthermore, a quick survey from Internet highlights the presence of a great variety of both approved and non-approved drugs, with some of them addressing to only medical and others to performance-oriented use, opening room to some reflections or speculations from scientific and ethical points of view. In order to point out the effect of nootropic drugs on cognition of healthy people, we reviewed the literature on drug enhancement of various cognitive functions, including memory, attention and creativity. As their simplest, memory is regarded as the ability to remember events or learned material, attention is the cognitive process of selectively concentrating on one aspect while ignoring distracters and creativity could be described as the ability to create products or ideas which are original and which possess a social usefulness. Reports from literature reveal that some medications currently available to patients with memory disorders may also increase performances in healthy people and that drugs designed for psychiatric disorders can also be used to enhance certain mental functions. However, the long-term effects of these drugs are unknown, but their apparent effectiveness allows room to their use and misuse. At variance with these literature data showing scientific, even if poor, evidence of the effect of smart drugs in the field of memory and attention, only indirect information on creativity can be obtained by studies of the effects of diseases and drugs on the artistic productivity of classic painters and famous authors, offering a link to understand the neuronal basis of this cognitive function and a cue to understand how drugs (used to correct the illness) may affect the function. On the basis of these cues, in this review we will discuss some critical aspects of the different cerebral circuits and molecular events regulating memory, attention and creativity in order to outline the neurobiological bases of the effects of "smart drugs" on cognitive functions, and to evaluate their putative pharmaceutical development.
记忆、注意力和创造力代表三个不同的认知领域，它们相互关联，共同构成个体的“心理表现”。现代神经科学已经研究了一些与上述认知功能相关的神经回路、神经递质及分子事件。在这个新的参考背景下，一些用于提高心理表现的药物成分的特性已在实验模型中得到研究和验证，迄今为止，这些物质被称为“智能药物”“记忆增强药物”或“益智药物”（源自希腊词根noos表示心智，tropein表示趋向）。最近，制药行业越来越关注该领域潜在物质的研究：几种“智能药物”正在进行临床试验，可能在几年内上市。此外，一项来自互联网的快速调查显示，存在大量已批准和未批准的药物，其中一些仅用于医疗用途，另一些则用于提高表现，这引发了从科学和伦理角度的一些思考和猜测。为了指出益智药物对健康人认知的影响，我们回顾了关于药物增强各种认知功能（包括记忆、注意力和创造力）的文献。简单来说，记忆被视为记住事件或所学材料的能力，注意力是选择性专注于一个方面而忽略干扰因素的认知过程，创造力可被描述为创造原创且具有社会实用性的产品或想法的能力。文献报道显示，目前一些用于治疗记忆障碍患者的药物也可能提高健康人的表现，并且用于治疗精神疾病的药物也可用于增强某些心理功能。然而，这些药物的长期影响尚不清楚，但它们明显的有效性使得它们存在被使用和滥用的空间。与这些显示智能药物在记忆和注意力领域有科学（即使有限）证据的文献数据不同，关于创造力只能通过研究疾病和药物对经典画家和著名作家艺术创造力的影响来获得间接信息，这为理解这种认知功能的神经基础以及药物（用于治疗疾病）如何影响该功能提供了一个联系和线索。基于这些线索，在本综述中，我们将讨论调节记忆、注意力和创造力的不同脑回路和分子事件的一些关键方面，以概述“智能药物”对认知功能影响的神经生物学基础，并评估它们可能的药物开发情况。
