This proposal will be illustrating different capability and expertise is said to be the main standard height of performance. The foundation of these unique capabilities has been given extra attention by different scholars and currently, there is proof for both heritability and the acquisition of expertise which depend on the environment. However, in the recent studies, it was completely accepted that accomplishing these standards was due to of innate attitude and the considerable actions.
Proposed Activity
The development and increase in the utilization of what is known as cognitive-enhancing drugs, for example, methylphenidate comes to the probability of accomplishing the required level of performance if the natural attitude or practice does not occur. Even though it was first reserved for the treatment of the disease, for example, ADHD and narcolepsy, cognitive enhancing medicines are mainly applied by healthy people such as the young individuals who are in the quest of bolstering exam performance. Consequently, it has been approximated that about 6.9% of students at United States universities have been using such medicines while some institutions tend to use about 3 times the amount even though it is not very simple to obtain the exact outcomes on the application of cognitive enhancing medicines in regard to this case. Different scholars have argued that for the legal and responsible utilization of these drugs in people who are healthy which can be a very ethical controversial standpoint. Nevertheless, before commenting on these type of matters it is very important to understand exactly how these medications are working because we are supposed to have a strong prove founded upon which to make such choices. Therefore, this research will focus on the effects of the cognitive enhancers which are available in modern times and the effect they have on cognition. Furthermore, the solutions to the research questions will be used in other research on the current and the probable application of cognitive enhancers in different clinical diseases (Buchanan, Keefe, Umbricht, Green, Laughren " Marder, 2010).
For this research, there has been a selection of a well-featured form of expertise which will be investigated easily in both human and animals and it include spatial cognition. The spatial cognition provides a very different opportunity to study high levels of performance in different organisms such as rats which were accomplished via practice with rates of acquisition that has been influenced by the capability of an individual. Most importantly for our purpose, the main neural associates of spatial learning and cognition have already been identified. The initial study holds that a pivotal responsibility for a brain location known as the hippocampus but the recent study indicated that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and ventral striatum (NAc) as compared to the (Hipp) will more often underlie spatial learning and cognition. All these locations are very much connected and the hippocampus contains a wide projection to the prelimbic location of the PFC together with the media NAc that tend to examine input from the PFC. On the other hand, these three locations have a unique role in spatial cognition. A good example includes damage to the hippocampus disrupts performance which is only on a given maze where the rats obtain training whilst not interfering with the performance on other mazes. This holds that unbroken transferable techniques that follow the loss of hippocampal tissue (Buchanan, Keefe, Umbricht, Green, Laughren " Marder, 2010).
On the other hand, the PFC is now believed to lie beneath this type of transferable techniques as it is engaged in what is referred to as executive responsibilities. The research included the application of radial maze where animals in the maze are required to find food rewards in a proportion of the maze and arms were also applied in dissociating the responsibilities of Hipp, PFC, and NA in spatial cognition. The spatial win-shift task which delayed was interfering with both the learning and the reminiscence in separated task phases and permitted manipulation of the demand on the memory by unreliable the holdup between phases. Damage to the hippocampus can damage performance on this job and on a random foraging task which is not delayed which makes researchers propose that it is needed for the processing over a short period of time of the spatial knowledge that exists (Buchanan, Keefe, Umbricht, Green, Laughren " Marder, 2010). As compared to how NAc appears to be important for use of novel spatial data and thus proposing a complete response to a behavior which is goal-directed. When one uses the radial maze tasks, it is clearly indicated that the PFC is vital in the delayed responsibilities as compared to the non-delayed tasks which show nice interviewing spatial data and planning future reactions that is not consistent with the initial findings proposing a responsibility in transferable techniques.
Intended Outcome
Consequently, spatial cognition and the neural circuitry that has been explained in the initial study are affected by the cognitive enhancing medicines. A good example is how methylphenidate affects a number of hippocampal-sensitive characters, for example, novel item recognition and the Morris Water Maze performance. Nevertheless, neurochemical research has shown that when they are administered at doses which are supposed to be taken for memory enhancement where there is an improvement in noradrenalin in the hippocampus and a reduced extent improvement in the PFC and Nac dopamine levels. The research demonstrated that in vitro that the hippocampal noradrenergic alterations can lead to changes in Long-Term Potentiation and depression where both will tend to be vital in spatial learning and memory. It is thus important and possible that the cognitive-enhancing impacts of the methylphenidate are as a result of actions of any or all the above structures. Furthermore, the hippocampus can be connected to a task-specific action, the NAc to novel spatial processing and the PFC to transportable skill the research will encompass establishment of where and on what procedure methylphenidate acts while applying a series of behavioral texts together with the electrophysiological review (Husain " Mehta, 2011).
In this research, we will use standard maze were we will differentiate between job-specific or what is known as hippocampal and transferable which is also referred to as PFC by applying two unique mazes depending on the Rabinovitch and Rosvold series believed to be of equal difficulty while it will also be unique. Animals will be grouped into the trained and untrained situation was the ones in the trained condition will be obtaining a 7 day of training on a particular maze. After a break of about 30days, the animals will be tested on all the mazes and the number of mistakes will be recorded. Within the trained and untrained clusters, half of the rats will obtain methylphenidate which will include 2.5mg/kg drug for cognitive enhancement whereas the other half will receive a vehicle. It is predicted that trained rats will act better which implies that they will make fewer mistakes on the familiar maze as compared to the errors that they will make in the unfamiliar maze. Another expectation is that the rats that have been trained will have to perform better across the mazes as compared to the rats which have not been trained at all (Husain " Mehta, 2011).
There will be an assumption that the animals will obtain methylphenidate which will tend to generally decrease the errors where the exact pattern of mistakes will permit us to conclude if the impacts are widely on hippocampus or PFC. Another maze that we used was the non-delay 8 Arm Radial Maze which will be applied in identifying and complete impacts on the goal-directed traits. The job requires animals to look out for food reward in a narrative spatial atmosphere. All the arms on the maze are attracted and rats are placed on the maze for about 4-5 minutes (Husain " Mehta, 2011). The reason is to gather all the 8 rewards devoid of the arm re-entry mistakes. Mistakes are thus recorded just the same way completion of time is recorded. This will lead to the examination of the impact of MPH on the rate of acquisition of this task. Another maze includes the delayed 8 Arm Radial Maze where the animals will be trained on the maze that contains only 4 randomly baited arms. With the existing time intervals, they are tested on the maze that contains all the arms which have been unblocked but are the direct opposite of 4 now baited.
Proposed Evaluation
The main reason for this activity is to gather all the 4 pellets devoid of the baited arm re-visits or entry to the non-baited arm. Animals will be expected to go through this task until they acquire at a delay of about 5 minutes and half an hour respectively. Thereafter, the task time delay will be raised to about 4 hours for a single off session which is selected to permit a period of drug washout in order for the medicine impact during the training phase can be differentiated from the effects during the testing phase. Mistakes will also be recorded just as the completion time. In the event that the cognitive-enhancing impacts of the methylphenidate are on the PFC, the animals that have been treated will perform much better on this delayed task which is referred to as the dependent on PFC activity.
Due to the fact that time of drug treatment while conducting the test may interfere with the outcome, all the probable combinations will be given 20 minutes prior hand to permit the blood plasma levels of the drug to increase. It is also important to note that the time used to complete all the tasks have to be recorded because there will be a slight increase in the total movement with the methylphenidate. This cannot influence the pattern of mistake outcomes and thus how they can be comprehended. Because of the behavior testing, there are different experiments that should be conducted including invivo electrophysiology experiments which measure the connectivity between different structures (Vrecko, 2013).
Animals will have to be beautified and a craniotomy conducted to permit arousal of the ventral subiculum area of the hippocampus which will also go hand in hand with recording local area possible actions from either the NAc or prelimbic (PL) location of the PFC or the arousal of the PL location at the same time recording the Nac (Vrecko, 2013). After sometimes of baseline recording which would take about 20 minutes and the recording should be done on the intraperitoneal injection of the methylphenidate which will be given and recording will resume for the next 1 hour. At the completion of the study electrode positions will be marked with a continuous current and the animal perfused to permit postmortem renovation of the recording areas. Normally, this type of experiment needs about 9 animals per cluster that will result in 27 animals. The proposed research will offer insights into how cognitive-enhancing medicine can create a short-cut to improved performance by examining spatial learning activities which depend on specific factors of spatial cognition which can be connected to given brain areas.
To achieve this, the different powerful mixture of behavioral testing and electrophysiological review of the connectivity between the main locations when the methylphenidate is present and when is absent. This task will thus offer direct prove of the main cognitive procedures impacted by methylphenidate and offer insight into the neurochemical foundation of these impacts (Vrecko, 2013). Such prove will typically tell the debate that concerns about the use of cognitive enhancers by healthy people.
Ethical Consideration
For anyone who wishes to enhance their productivity, their level of alertness an the capability of learning and remembering it will be important for them to consider using cognitive enhancers or what in other words smart drugs. However, any user must understand that their brain is the most valuable asset and that they should be aware of all the facts which include the benefits and the side effects of using such drugs. There are often overlaps which makes the cognitive enhancers to be divided into different parts. There are different popular and the most reliable cognitive enhancers in every group and therefore one should be able to use the one that matches his or her qualities. There are different kinds of natural supplements which can be used as cognitive enhancers and they include herbs, vitamins, minerals and amino acids. In some instances, it is advisable to use brain supplements versus cognitive enhancing drugs.
References
Buchanan, R. W., Keefe, R. S., Umbricht, D., Green, M. F., Laughren, T., " Marder, S. R. (2010). The FDA-NIMH-MATRICS guidelines for clinical trial design of cognitive-enhancing drugs: what do we know 5 years later?. Schizophrenia bulletin, 37(6), 1209-1217.
Husain, M., " Mehta, M. A. (2011). Cognitive enhancement by drugs in health and disease. Trends in cognitive sciences, 15(1), 28-36.
Vrecko, S. (2013). Just how cognitive is “cognitive enhancement”? On the significance of emotions in university students’ experiences with study drugs. AJOB neuroscience, 4(1), 4-12.
