It is an open secret: while athletes dope their bodies, regular office workers dope their brains. They buy prescription drugs such as Ritalin or Provigil on the internet's flourishing black market to boost their cognitive performance.

It is hard to get reliable data on how many people take 'smart drugs' or 'pharmacological cognitive enhancement substances', as scientists call them. However, studies suggest people from many different walks of life use them.

A poll published in the journal Nature revealed 20 per cent of readers had taken smart drugs - and it seems their use is on the rise.

Modafinil, sold under names including Provigil or Alertec, is a wakefulness-promoting drug. It was developed to treat sleep disorders such as narcolepsy.Although its effects on the brain are not fully understood yet, the drug works in part by increasing dopamine concentration.

Taking modafinil does improve attention, but it is still unclear whether it also brings any other cognitive benefits. If it does, they are likely to be small.

But modafinil might also make you less smart as it can reduce creativity and flexibility in thinking. Also, similar to Ritalin, modafinil boosts brain power more for people who normally show low performance. In other words - if you take modafinil, you might make your performance better in one domain, but reduce it in another. And you will hardly benefit if you are a high performer anyway.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3703248/Why-smart-drugs-make-clever-especially-naturally-intelligent.html#ixzz4FTb02KU9
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