The Ability to Problem-Solve is Provided by Modafinil
Modafinil, also known by the brand name Provigil, is approved to treat narcolepsy but it’s mostly taken by healthy people who want to concentrate better during exams or heavy-duty negotiations. In a recent study, researchers found that sleep-deprived people who took modafinil performed better than those who didn’t.
Dr Ruairidh Battleday and Anna-Katharine Brem reviewed 24 studies of cognitive enhancement with modafinil, in which healthy people were given the drug or a placebo. The results were consistent.
Decision-Making
The drug modafinil online, a powerful stimulant used to treat narcolepsy and increasingly taken without prescription by healthy people, can boost decision-making, improve learning and memory, and increase something called “fluid intelligence” — the ability to solve problems creatively.
A recent review of 24 studies has concluded that the drug, which is also thought to improve creativity and flow states, enhances cognition by increasing blood flow to brain areas involved in attention and learning. Specifically, it increases activity in the anterior and posterior cingulate cortex as measured by fMRI, and the mediodorsal nucleus of the thalamus as measured by scalp EEG.
These areas are involved in adaptive processing, including decision-making and task-switching. Unlike other cognitive enhancers, which have been shown to diminish with long-term use, modafinil is safe for extended periods.
Flexibility
Modafinil enhances attention and improves learning, memory, and something called “fluid intelligence,” enabling people to solve problems creatively and think more broadly. But it also may boost something called “resource allocation,” which enables people to choose between competing activities, researchers say.
The drug, which is prescribed for narcolepsy but increasingly taken without prescription by healthy people, has some cognitive benefits in people with depression, too (a prefrontal measure called Stroop interference was improved).
It also seems to improve other measures of cognitive functioning, including flexibility and decision-making. However, because it increases heart rate, it is considered stimulant doping and banned by many sports competitions.
Memory
Studies of cognitive function using a variety of tasks have shown that modafinil enhances performance on several cognitive tasks in healthy subjects and patients with various psychiatric conditions.
Modafinil has been shown to improve working memory, recognition memory, and sustained attention without affecting speed-accuracy trade-offs. It also increases accuracy on a delayed matching task, and vigilance.
Its effects on visual recognition memory appear to depend on dopamine D1 receptors. In rodents, modafinil pre-treatment is associated with dose- and delay-dependent improvements in a sequential alternation task, but not in general alternation ability or exploratory activity (Beracochea et al, 2001).
Modalert Tablet reduces the error rate on a delayed nonmatching to position task and improves both the accuracy and duration of delayed response, suggesting that it is beneficial for both maintenance and manipulation of memory representations.
Modafinil has also been shown to improve performance on a version of the Tower of London that measures attentional set-shifting, a cognitive function strongly dependent on ascending DA systems in fronto-cortical loops.
This enhancement is accompanied by reduced omission errors and greater suppression of premature responses, consistent with the effects on cortical acetylcholine described above.
In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study of emergency department physicians following an overnight shift, single doses of modafinil significantly improved accuracy on this task, as well as digit span and a delayed visual recognition memory test.
