• Technology

• Health

• Environment

• Project Co-ordinator: Dr. phil. Thorsten Galert, M.A.

• Press Release (German) on the presentation of the memorandum

• Presentation of the memorandum “Das optimierte Gehirn” on October, 12, 2009, in Berlin

• Memorandum “Das optimierte Gehirn. Ein Memorandum zu Chancen und Risiken des Neuroenhancements”, Gehirn&Geist 11/2009

• Duration: 7/06–10/09

• Funding: German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF): “Research on ethical, legal and social aspects in biomedicine”

• Further Information on “Neuroenhancement”

“Neuroenhancement” refers to the improvement of cognitive performance and emotional well-being beyond what is considered “normal” or “natural” in healthy individuals. Especially the consumption of psychopharmaceutical prescription drugs by healthy people seeking to enhance their memory, attention or mood gives rise to heated debate. Certain antidepressants are said to help people without any mood disorder to feel “better than well”, and stimulant drugs used therapeutically in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder seem to gain popularity among students who try to achieve a competitive edge in exams.

This emerging trend toward non-therapeutic use of psychopharmaceutical drugs has been explored by an interdisciplinary project group. Its members deliberately decided to make their research results accessible to the wider public by publishing a memorandum on the possible benefits and risks of neuroenhancement in the popular scientific magazine Gehirn&Geist. According to the authors, currently the best reason not to use prescription drugs like Ritalin or Prozac for enhancement purposes is the lack of evidence both for their effectiveness and their long-term safety in healthy people. This has been established by the medical experts of the working group in a systematic review of the research literature. Provided, however, safe and effective neuroenhancement drugs were to become available in the future, there would be no sufficient reason to prohibit their usage. Adequate regulation is nevertheless required in order to counteract undesirable social consequences, like for instance an exacerbation of inequality, which may conceivably result from the widespread consumption of such drugs. In sum, the expert group pleads for a liberal but by no means uncritical attitude towards the evolving possibilities of pharmaceutical neuroenhancement.

• Christoph Bublitz, LL.B., Hamburg;

• Dimitris Repantis, M.D., Berlin;

• Davinia Talbot, M.A., Münster.

Project Co-ordinator: Dr. phil. Thorsten Galert, M.A.