CiteULike is a free online bibliography manager. Register and you can start organising your references online.

Pharmacological manipulation of human working memory Export

Psychopharmacology, Vol. 174, No. 1. (1 June 2004), pp. 126-135.

Citation Format

[Posts]

View FullText article


shoshin's tags for this article

acetylcholine attention dopamine intelligence neurobiology nicotinic nootropics norepinephrine prefrontal_cortex psychoactives

X Reviews [Write a review of this article]

X Find related articles from these CiteULike users

X Find related articles with these CiteULike tags

X Posting History

X Abstract

Rationale The goal of this paper is to briefly overview human studies that have examined pharmacological agents designed to enhance working memory function, with the idea of providing clues as to promising avenues to follow for the development of drugs likely to enhance working memory and other cognitive processes in individuals with schizophrenia. Objectives We reviewed the studies that have used pharmacological agents designed to target the dopamine system, the noradrenergic system, the acetycholine system, the serotonin system, and the glycine site on NMDA receptors. Results There are a large number of studies suggesting that dopamine agents can enhance working memory, though there remain conflicting issues regarding the role that baseline performance plays in modulating the influence of drug and the importance of different dopamine receptors. There is also consistent evidence that cholinesterase inhibitors can enhance working memory function, potentially through improved encoding of the information. There is less consistent evidence that noradrenergic alpha-2 agonists consistently improve working memory in humans, despite the large animal literature suggesting that these agents should have a beneficial effect on memory. As of yet, there is little evidence that agents targeting the glycine site of the NMDA receptor improve working memory, and data to suggest that enhancement of the serotonin system impairs working memory. Conclusions Compounds geared towards enhancing the dopamine system and the acetycholine system remain promising avenues for the development of pro-cognitive drugs, though further work is clearly needed on developing agents that may more selectively target specific receptors.


X BibTeX record

X RIS record


Privacy Statement | Terms & Conditions
CiteULike organises scholarly (or academic) papers or literature and provides bibliographic (which means it makes bibliographies) for universities and higher education establishments. It helps undergraduates and postgraduates. People studying for PhDs or in postdoctoral (postdoc) positions. The service is similar in scope to EndNote or RefWorks or any other reference manager like BibTeX, but it is a social bookmarking service for scientists and humanities researchers.