The Limitations of Smart Drugs for Cognitive Enhancement

A recent study investigated the effectiveness of three popular smart drugs, namely, modafinil, methylphenidate, and dextroamphetamine, against the difficulty of real-life daily tasks, i.e., the 0-1 knapsack optimization problem. Even though drug treatment did not result in a significant drop in the chance of getting a solution to the knapsack problem instances, it positively caused a significant overall reduction in attained value. The time spent or the effort levels significantly improved on average in the participants under smart drugs. However, heterogeneity in the quality of effort linked to each drug was observed compared to placebo. The study found that smart drugs only improved motivation to do work but not the quality of effort.