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Not so smart? "Smart" drugs increase the level but decrease the quality of cognitive effort.

Elizabeth Bowman1, David Coghill2, Carsten Murawski1

  • 1Centre for Brain, Mind, and Markets, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia.

Science Advances
|June 14, 2023
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Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Pharmaceutical cognitive enhancers like methylphenidate, dextroamphetamine, and modafinil did not improve performance on complex tasks. These "smart drugs" increased effort but decreased the quality of problem-solving, annulling motivational benefits.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Behavioral Economics
  • Psychopharmacology

Background:

  • The efficacy of pharmaceutical cognitive enhancers in complex, real-world tasks is not well-established.
  • Existing research often focuses on simple cognitive functions, not complex problem-solving.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the impact of common cognitive enhancers on performance in a complex optimization task.
  • To determine if drugs like methylphenidate, dextroamphetamine, and modafinil enhance or impair performance in tasks requiring strategic decision-making.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized the knapsack optimization problem as a model for complex daily tasks.
  • Compared the effects of methylphenidate, dextroamphetamine, and modafinil against a placebo.
  • Measured task value, solution optimality, decision time, steps taken, and productivity.

Main Results:

  • Cognitive enhancers significantly diminished the value attained in the knapsack task compared to placebo.
  • While motivation may increase, the quality of effort and problem-solving strategy decreased significantly.
  • Individual performance differences were reduced, with high performers declining and low performers improving.

Conclusions:

  • Pharmaceutical cognitive enhancers do not enhance performance on complex optimization tasks.
  • The observed decrease in the quality of effort negates any potential motivational benefits of these drugs.
  • Increased randomness in solution strategies may explain the counterintuitive performance changes.