We found that whilst most studies employing basic testing paradigms show that modafinil intake enhances executive function , only half show improvements in attention and learning and memory , and a few even report impairments in divergent creative thinking .
In contrast , when more complex assessment s are used , modafinil appears to consistently engender enhancement of attention , executive functions , and learning .
Importantly , we did not observe any preponderances for side effects or mood changes .
Modafinil is an FDA -approved eugeroic that directly increases cortical catecholamine levels , indirectly upregulates cerebral serotonin , glutamate , orexin , and histamine levels , and indirectly decreases cerebral gamma-amino-butrytic acid levels .
In addition to its approved use treating excessive somnolence , modafinil is thought to be used widely off-prescription for cognitive enhancement .
However , despite this popularity , there has been little consensus on the extent and nature of the cognitive effects of modafinil in healthy , non-sleep-deprived humans .
Modafinil Increases the Latency of Response in the Hayling Sentence Completion Test in Healthy Volunteers: A Randomised Controlled Trial
Background Modafinil is a medication licensed for the treatment of narcolepsy . However , it has been reported that healthy individuals without wakefulness disorders are using modafinil off-label to enhance cognitive functioning . Although some studies have reported that modafinil improves cognitive task performance in healthy volunteers , numerous other studies have failed to detect cognitive enhancing effects of modafinil on several well-established neuropsychological tasks . Interestingly , several clinical and pre clinical studies have found that improved cognitive task performance by modafinil is accompanied by slower response times . This observation raises the question as to whether this slowing of response time in healthy volunteers is a necessary and sufficient condition for cognitive enhancement with modafinil . The aim of the current experiment was to explore this question by investigating the effects of modafinil on the Hayling Sentence Completion Test ( HSCT ) . Methodology Sixty-four healthy volunteers received either a single dose ( 200 mg ) of modafinil ( n = 32 ) or placebo ( n = 32 ) in a r and omized , double-blind , placebo-controlled , parallel group study in which the principal outcome measures were response latencies on the response initiation and response inhibition sections of the HSCT . Principal Findings Participants dosed with modafinil had significantly longer mean response latencies on the HSCT for both the response initiation and response inhibition compared to participants dosed with placebo . However , participants in both groups made a similar number of errors on each of these measures , indicating that modafinil did not enhance the accuracy of performance of the task relative to placebo . Conclusions This study demonstrated that administration of single 200 mg doses of modafinil to healthy individuals increased the latency of responses in the performance of the HSCT , a task that is highly sensitive to prefrontal executive function , without enhancing accuracy of performance . This finding may provide important clues to defining the limitations of modafinil as a putative cognitive enhancer . Trial Registration Clinical Trials.gov
We found that whilst most studies employing basic testing paradigms show that modafinil intake enhances executive function , only half show improvements in attention and learning and memory , and a few even report impairments in divergent creative thinking .
In contrast , when more complex assessment s are used , modafinil appears to consistently engender enhancement of attention , executive functions , and learning .
Importantly , we did not observe any preponderances for side effects or mood changes .
Modafinil is an FDA -approved eugeroic that directly increases cortical catecholamine levels , indirectly upregulates cerebral serotonin , glutamate , orexin , and histamine levels , and indirectly decreases cerebral gamma-amino-butrytic acid levels .
In addition to its approved use treating excessive somnolence , modafinil is thought to be used widely off-prescription for cognitive enhancement .
However , despite this popularity , there has been little consensus on the extent and nature of the cognitive effects of modafinil in healthy , non-sleep-deprived humans .