Cognitive Enhancing Drugs

During the past decade research into the pharmacology of cognition, particularly regarding learning and memory, has supported the concept that many potential neural targets exist for the development of cognitive-enhancing drugs. Whereas the main impetus for this research has been the ever growing population of individuals with dementing disorders such as Alzheimer`s disease, attention is also being focused on issues relating to cognitive impairment associated with "normal" aging. This book is useful as a source of information for making informed decisions regarding the relative utility and attributes of the various neural targets that have been studied to date.

Inhalt

The cholinergic hypothesis - past and present.- Drugs that target cholinesterases.- Drugs that target muscarinic cholinergic receptors.- Rationale and prospects for drugs that target nicotinic acetylcholine receptors.- Drugs that target catecholaminergic receptors.- Drugs that target serotonergic receptors.- Drugs that target ionotropic excitatory amino acid receptors.- Cognitive enhancing effects of drugs that target histamine receptors.- Peptide and steroid hormone receptors as drug targets for enhancement of learning and memory performance.- Natural products as cognition enhancing agents.- Drugs with multiple CNS targets.