In conclusion , a number of new active drugs were found to improve some cognitive functions , in particular verbal episodic memory .
Pharmacological cognitive enhancement refers to improvement in cognitive functions after drug use in healthy individuals .
This popular topic attracts attention both from the general public and the scientific community .
The objective was to explore innovative mechanisms of psychostimulant 's action , whose potential effectiveness was assessed in r and omized placebo-controlled trials ( RCTs ) .
Levodopa: Faster and better word learning in normal humans
Dopamine is a potent modulator of learning and has been implicated in the encoding of stimulus salience . Repetition , however , as required for the acquisition and reacquisition of sensorimotor or cognitive skills ( e.g. , in aphasia therapy ) , decreases salience . We here tested whether increasing brain levels of dopamine during repetitive training improves learning success . Forty healthy humans took  100 mg of the dopamine precursor levodopa or placebo daily for 5 days in a r and omized double‐blind and parallel‐group design . Ninety minutes later on each day , subjects were trained on an  artificial vocabulary using a high‐frequency repetitive approach . Levodopa significantly enhanced the speed , overall success , and long‐term retention of novel word learning in a dose‐dependent manner . These findings indicate new ways to potentiate learning in a variety of domains if conventional training alone fails
In conclusion , a number of new active drugs were found to improve some cognitive functions , in particular verbal episodic memory .
Pharmacological cognitive enhancement refers to improvement in cognitive functions after drug use in healthy individuals .
This popular topic attracts attention both from the general public and the scientific community .
The objective was to explore innovative mechanisms of psychostimulant 's action , whose potential effectiveness was assessed in r and omized placebo-controlled trials ( RCTs ) .