Cognitive performance enhancement while Performancee age-related differences in compensatory behavior. Gray matters, Volume enhnacement Topics at the intersection of neuroscience, ethics, and society. Yet applying these principles to humans, who have rich, detailed memories from a lifetime of experience, presents a unique challenge.

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But again, a comprehensive and rigorous analysis of this equivalence of methods should come in support of these arguments; though equal and legal access to cognitive enhancers may solve a justice-related issue, there would remain issues related to the differences in terms of the motivational, psychological, procedural, and other aspects of enhancement.

Furthermore, there are interactions between the agent user and the deed method as well as practical socio-political questions of how to distribute enhancers safely and fairly e. By the same token, those claiming that enhancement is condemnable in itself need to provide strong arguments and evidence supporting the notion that such a deed is intrinsically immoral or that the aspects listed above do in fact differ significantly between methods and affect the user in a meaningful way.

Even though ethical debates repeatedly evoke this issue, there is a dearth of evidence concerning different aspects of this debate. For example, surveys and experiments aimed at uncovering attitudes towards cognitive enhancers often inquire about safety, coercion, and fairness unfair access, cheating, etc.

Some of the more recent research suggests that methods sometimes do matter and sometimes do not, and that understanding how and why they matter is challenging. For example, the acceptability of using different technologies e. Some studies indicate that characteristics of the enhancement methods e.

Likewise, though willingness to use a substance-based enhancer has been found not to change across different types of substances with similar characteristics e. Other research found that the attitudes of physicians to prescribing different cognitive enhancers towards those cognitive enhancers, varies Franke et al.

These diverging findings point to the complexity of the issue. Yet the debate remains sometimes Manichean Buchanan, On one side of the debate, the importance of methods is discounted: only the goals and end-results—not the methods—matter Greely et al.

At the other end of the spectrum, some argue that the methods used have overwhelming importance and are condemnable in themselves Sandel, This latter view is in line with the deontological ethics tradition in which certain acts have intrinsic value e.

This kind of thinking is also reflected in formal norms and laws e. Nevertheless, there is limited comparative analysis available of the impact of different methods of performance enhancement on actual human behavioral, psychological, and social factors.

A fair amount of research is based on projected intents, not actual behaviors Sattler et al. From a sociological and psychological standpoint, methods of enhancement matter because they shape the psychological context in which outcomes emerge Rauthmann et al.

This does not mean that all novel methods of human performance enhancement negatively impact users on a psychological or social level; it simply means that the potential for these effects situational, social, psychological, etc.

cannot be discounted and should be systematically considered when making decisions about how new performance enhancement technologies should be used.

To advance understandings of these aspects of human cognitive enhancement, we need prospective studies comparing users of cognitive enhancement technology e. This kind of evidence is crucial in getting to the crux of the worries expressed in ethical debates and explore interactions between the deed, agent user , and consequences.

Moreover, experimental surveys using vignettes could assess public and expert judgments of different enhancement methods and related existing and requested formal norms.

Ecologically relevant studies or direct observation in clinical or real-world settings would be useful complements.

See Table 2 for more discussion about strategies to examine the non- equivalence of methods. Understanding the different impacts of methods of enhancement is difficult, because methods do not stand separately from their context of use and the intents and knowledge about the methods themselves, the consequences of their use, etc.

of agents users. Likewise, simply claiming an equivalence or non-equivalence between methods of enhancement forecloses genuine investigation into and discussion about the real impact of enhancement technology on human social and psychological practices, acknowledging here that deeds might be hard to separate from their implications.

Too often, technology is approved or rejected based on its alleged intrinsic worth without much analysis of potential opportunity costs or of its broader impact on other existing practices and technologies Buchanan, Take for example the historical opposition to all kinds of technological innovation e.

This opposition was often fueled by the fear of a loss Juma, The flipside is that intrinsic value is sometimes attributed to all kinds of new technologies e. Both attitudes are not ideal and need to be cross-checked by scientific evidence.

As these examples demonstrate, the evaluation of the equivalence of methods can change over time and across situations, with changing values, social attitudes, and evolving understandings of the methods.

This makes re-evaluations in certain intervals useful. To investigate and understand the true importance of enhancement methods, though, one must first grant that methods of enhancement are an important component of behavior, then study them accordingly.

Agency and the motivations underlying human performance enhancement matter from an ethical standpoint. Consider the differences between a situation in which the intention of the user of a performance enhancement technology is to gain advantage over other students in a competitive university entry exam and a situation in which the same technology is used to achieve a heroic feat with noble and altruistic intent that might save the lives of many people e.

These distinct motivations would likely entail very different moral evaluations; academic and legal institutions, peers, and society in general will treat each situation differently, indicating that regardless of whether intent should matter when it comes to cognitive enhancement use, it does matter.

Furthermore, the effects of the use of cognitive enhancers on agent motivation are also crucial to understand. One robust finding is that intrinsically motivated actions—actions performed for their own sake and for the sake of self-satisfaction, i.

It is possible that some altruistic intrinsically motivated behaviors rely on distinct neural pathways, indicting an important difference between actions performed in deeper connection with intrinsic values and extrinsically motivated actions Moll et al.

Perhaps someone using cognitive enhancement to achieve a high grade on a university entrance exam will mainly be able to satisfy their extrinsic motivations, whereas someone who is studying and preparing for the exam without enhancement will likely reap more self-satisfaction from the process in and of itself.

The receipt of an external reward e. This argument and like-minded ones warrants investigation into whether this increased motivation would also ultimately augment well-being, as would more intrinsically motivated actions.

An unintended consequence of pill-induced motivation on agency could be that intrinsic motivation to perform tasks generally declines and that pills become essential in motivating particular action, akin to a phenomenon of addiction.

Individuals might face a trade-off between greater attainments of outcomes and their sense of agency or self-efficacy.

This could, in the end, reduce their well-being and autonomy by involuntarily increasing the motivation to work harder to realize unmotivating tasks Bavelier et al. Currently, we do not have an in-depth understanding of the impact of enhancement technology on motivation and, more broadly, on agents users.

However, we know that users of cognitive enhancers in the form of drugs tend to be motivated by increases in performance at work and in educational settings Sattler et al.

Furthermore, other studies have suggested that stress, lower-than-average performance, low intrinsic motivation, peer influence, procrastination, and other factors tend to increase the willingness for enhancer use Sattler et al.

Some users may also be self-medicating e. Motivations could be influenced by hyperbolic media discourse about cognitive enhancers Partridge et al. These findings speak to the centrality of human intents and motivations in debates about enhancement technology. Unfortunately, a commonplace rhetorical strategy used in debates about enhancement is to minimize and sometimes dismiss the ethical importance of agency and agent motivations and, instead, bring attention to the consequences of actions.

Some proponents of moral enhancement, for example, claim without regard for the methods of enhancement and their differences or their potential side effects on agency that enhancement is essentially necessary for the end-goal of human well-being Savulescu, This strategy relies on a narrow understanding of what brings happiness and fulfilment to flourishing individuals Yaden et al.

However, other scholars take the opposite route and tend to boil down the ethics of enhancement only to its motivational aspects such that the outcomes do not seem to matter Sandel, This idea is embedded in several legal traditions including Anglo-American criminal law.

For example, the doctrine of mens rea guilty mind is part of the evaluation of the criminal responsibility of someone who has committed a criminal act. Likewise, people are usually interested in what is revealed about the person and their dispositions through their acts, and this is well-reflected in ethics theories that focus on agent characteristics MacIntyre, In this sense, cognitive enhancement is often viewed negatively because it suggests unvirtuous behavior Sandel, Public opinion, as well as ethical analysis, may come up with different justifications or condemnations regarding various motives, and this might guide reactions towards the user, demands regarding policies, and user behavior.

Furthermore, motivations to enhance need to be examined more carefully in light of their actual contribution to flourishing. Further examination of the motivations of those using cognitive enhancement, as well as the effects of cognitive enhancement on human motivation, is crucial from the standpoint of human psychology, sociology, and behavioral science.

Agent motivation and other factors should also be examined in the case of addiction, which may impair agency itself both self-attributed agency and agency attributed by others , as well as the ability to form and act on motivations. Some of this research could be accomplished by studies in behavioral neuroscience focusing on the mechanisms and neural pathways of different types of motivation, so that concrete and consequential differences between forms of motivation and their potential consequences can be pinpointed.

Psychological studies could assess whether the intuitive notion that self-satisfaction is valuable applies to the case of cognitive enhancement and whether individuals using cognitive enhancement get the same sense of self-satisfaction from accomplishments as those who do not use it.

Other studies could further establish the importance of social factors, such as perceptions of moral situations given agent intentions. Potential effects of cognitive enhancement on human motivation need to be investigated to inform enlightened and rational policy decisions.

Experimental studies have been used to assess, for example, the impact of incentives on intrinsic motivation in many different contexts; although research ethics need to be carefully considered, such studies could be conducted in the context of cognitive enhancement and its effect on task involvement and intrinsic, as well as extrinsic, motivation to work on target tasks.

Additionally, large-scale longitudinal survey studies may offer opportunities to prospectively assess the impact of cognitive enhancers on those who have started or will start using them and the relationships between motivations for their use and the lived stress, social and economic pressures, culturally formed framings, and goals of potential users.

Further, interview-based and narrative social science research could help generate a deeper understanding of the impact of cognitive enhancers on actual users in comparison to non-users, while taking into account different values, orientations, and cultural backgrounds Groeneveld et al.

See Table 3 for suggestions for research on agency and agent user motivations. Research has provided some understanding of the motivations an individual may have for using cognitive enhancers, while mechanisms behind personal and situational drivers and hurdles, as well as their interplay, are still far from being sufficiently understood Sattler, ; Sattler et al.

For the testing of causal hypotheses, experimental and longitudinal research is the medium of choice. However, assessing such motivations in situ might be difficult. Moreover, we have a very incomplete understanding of the effects of cognitive enhancers on human motivations.

Shedding light on these matters may either alleviate or bolster worries that cognitive enhancers will radically change the structure of human motivation and thwart ideals of human excellence and achievement.

Thus, effects on human motivation should not be presumed or discounted; the possibility that cognitive enhancement may be found to, for example, have no significant effect on motivational or other factors, should not preclude the need to test out whether this is the case empirically.

The growth of biotechnology and neuroscience yields numerous possibilities for the development of cognitive enhancement. So far, debates about these possibilities involve important claims about the psychological and social outcomes of enhancement consequences , the importance of enhancement methods used to attain a particular goal deeds , and the role of agency and agent user motivations.

These claims often stand as assumptions because they have not been sufficiently investigated. Yet, they are extremely important according to the ADC model that we have used as a heuristic to describe the ethical dimensions of cognitive enhancement. We have argued for 1 the study of a broad range of social and psychological outcomes associated with cognitive enhancers in addition to biological and health outcomes ; 2 investigation into the importance of the specific enhancement methods used, as they may have different social and psychological implications; and 3 greater consideration of agency and the role of agent motivation and its relationship to user well-being.

These three components should not be investigated in isolation; their mutual dependency must be fully considered if a more realistic and comprehensive picture is sought.

Importantly, regardless of study design, rigorous and scientific analyses must be based on open-mindedness about aspects of and arguments about cognitive enhancement regarding outcomes, deeds, and agent motivations — not only those which support a certain view or those valued in a given research protocol.

An analysis based only on a priori favorable or unfavorable opinions about these aspects can succumb to biases e. Extensive research into these aspects is imperative if we are to assess the ethics of the non- use of cognitive enhancers in an evidence-based and integrative manner and inform future policy making as well as technology development.

Defendable and rational policies concerning cognitive enhancement need to rely on strong and objective evidence exposing all aspects of cognitive enhancement, including its biological, legal, social, and psychological aspects. Eliana Neophytou, Laurie A. Allen, A. Cognitive enhancement and beyond: Recommendations from the bioethics commission.

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Profile Books. Funk, C. If correct, the present update means the ethical debate is real: how should we classify, condone or condemn a drug that improves human performance in the absence of pre-existing cognitive impairment? The non-medical use of mind altering drugs has hitherto broadly conflicted with the work ethic of many societies, has been very popular but leads to a range of demonstrable harms.

Regulation has been and remains problematic. We cannot know either if demand for modafinil in the same societies will actually be significant, whether society will be more accepting and how regulation will then be framed.

Modafinil for cognitive neuroenhancement in healthy non-sleep-deprived subjects: a systematic review is published in European Neuropsychopharmacology doi : Skip to main content.

Share This Tweet. Share on Facebook. Share on LinkedIn. Share on Reddit. Health Research. Bodleian's Nick Millea wins Royal Scottish Geographical Society Award 13 Feb Many studies have documented the impact of aerobic exercise on brain health and performance.

A growing line of evidence suggests that strength training has benefits for mental health and cognitive function as well that may be somewhat unique, and perhaps complimentary, to the effects of aerobic exercise. There may be additional social and cognitive benefits from team sports and group activities or participating in an event such as a race.

Implementing lifestyle changes can help to develop many aspects of our cognition. Engaging in consistent and diverse stimulation is a powerful tool in developing our brain function. As our brains continue to mature during our lifetime, these techniques may help to positively enhance our performance:.

Cognitively stimulating leisure activities, such as word games, puzzles, gardening or writing calligraphy, can produce similar results to cognitive training programs and have a significant effect on the delay and reduction of cognitive decline.

If we keep our furry friends engaged, and introduce new stimuli continuously, their knowledge can flourish. By implementing lifestyle changes that expose ourselves to a variety of cognitively stimulating activities and ideas as well as regular physical activity, our neural network will respond with new connections and increased function.

Through collaboration, a healthcare professional can work with individuals to determine physical and mental activities that complement areas of their cognitive function they may want to enhance.

Cognitive Enhancement. The Impact of Exercise on Brain Health and Preservation November 29, Stress Management Resources October 3,

Source: molekuul. be via Cognitive performance enhancement. Now, a new systematic Cognitive performance enhancement, published online in the peer-reviewed journal European Neuropsychopharmacology pfrformance that perfoormance does performnce confer significant peeformance Cognitive performance enhancement in this group, at least on a particular subset of tasks. Dr Ruairidh Battleday and Dr Anna-Katharine Brem from the University of Oxford and Harvard Medical School evaluated all research papers on cognitive enhancement with modafinil from January to December They found 24 studies dealing with different benefits associated with taking modafinil, including planning and decision making, flexibility, learning and memory, and creativity. Metrics details. Cognitive Performajce in Cognitive performance enhancement absence of Cognitive performance enhancement cognitive impairment, observed in patients Non-GMO sweeteners subjective cognitive decline SCDare common in old age. Perfodmance first step to postpone wakefulness and sleep quality decline Cognitive performance enhancement to use techniques known to enancement cognition, i. We aimed to provide clinical recommendations to improve enhanceement performance in cognitively unimpaired individuals, by using cognitive, mental, or physical training CMPTnon-invasive brain stimulations NIBSdrugs, or nutrients. We made a systematic review of CMPT studies based on the GRADE method rating the strength of evidence. CMPT have clinically relevant effects on cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes. The quality of evidence supporting the improvement of outcomes following a CMPT was high for metamemory; moderate for executive functions, attention, global cognition, and generalization in daily life; and low for objective memory, subjective memory, motivation, mood, and quality of life, as well as a transfer to other cognitive functions.