Posted 10 May 2010 - 03:43 AM
People often have unreasonable expectations for nootropics. A human being is an elaborate creature with many homeostatic responses designed to keep things working just as they are, and just as they are supposed to be. It is perhaps reasonable to be a supercomputer 10% of the time, a zombie 10% of the time and normal 80% of the time...but it is totally unreasonable to be a supercomputer for 24 hours per day. However, to even achieve a "supercomputer" cognitive state one requires some more intense drugs that drastically modify the dopamine/norepinephrine pathways. In general, only amphetamines or MAOI's can achieve such effects...and then it's only a matter of time before homeostasis steps in.
What nootropics and other mild supplements can at best promise us is a stabilized mild improvement in various aspects of mental function. Anyone who has used amphetamines knows first-hand that they throw your brain into overdrive: your ideas flow faster than you can speak, you remember exactly what was just said to a T [working memory], you understand every word of your professor as though it is golden advice from god's mouth [comprehension], the desire to look up from the math book to surf the web is absent [motivation], you can easily visualize and imagine anything necessary to comprehension of a topic [imagination], and moreover you realize (after you come down) that everything you did while high is totally embedded in your memory ("WOW quantum mechanics never made so much sense...I remember exactly how to solve schrodinger's equation and what it means!!!").
The reason you can "feel" amphetamine but not nootropics is because nootropics don't really throw your brain into overdrive like amphetamines do. Rather than seemingly doubling comprehension, motivation, imagination, intuition, concentration, memory consolidation, working memory, and learning...all nootropics really do is slightly sensitize receptors in the brain responsible for these neurological functions. As a result you may feel slightly more "clear" mentally, or have slightly better ability to concentrate, or notice that your grades are slowly increasing, or perhaps that you have slightly better verbal fluency...but you're not going to feel like a supercomputer.
So if you're looking for a pill that will make you a supercomputer and make you feel like one, then I'm sorry but modern pharmacology just isn't up to par with your expectations. But if you want to slightly improve various aspects of mental function (such as those already mentioned) by "priming" your brain so to speak, without noticing any drastic changes to your subjective consciousness, then perhaps nootropics are a good option for you.
Piracetam, choline, pyritinol and related supplements have been documented to mildly improve these mental functions. There would not be a huge community dedicated to their usage if they had no validity to them. But just keep in mind that they are very subtle. You cannot "feel" them because they do not drastically alter your subjective consciousness as amphetamines do, but you will notice with time that you tend to be a better functioning person whose brain seems to be slightly superior than the norm. Do not become discouraged and do not become disappointed: present day pharmacology is slightly lackluster but it does have some merit to it.
