NROSCI 0081 Lecture Notes - Lecture 27: Ginkgo Biloba, Nootropic, Psychoactive Drug
Lecture 27 Nootropics 11-21
• Enhance cognitive function in healthy people
o Planning, memory, creativity, motivation
• Medical and therapeutic purposes
• History
o Romanian psychologist and chemist (Giurgea) → turn or bend the
bind
o 1964
o Criteria
▪ Enhance learning and memory
▪ Enhance resistance of learned memories to conditions which
tend to disrupt them
▪ Protect brain against physical and chemical injuries
▪ Increase efficacy of tonic cortical mechanisms
▪ Lack pharmacology of other psychotropic drugs – few side
effects and low toxicity
• Prevalence
o Often combined to enhance multiple cognitive functions (stacks)
o Hundreds of drugs and supplements
o Varying mechanisms
o Most are stimulants
▪ Caffeine, nicotine, amphetamines
o Supplements
▪ St. Joh’s Wort, elatoi, gigko iloa
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