Lifeboat Foundation

It has long been known that certain psychoactive chemicals, found in such plants as the peyote cactus and diviner’s sage, enhance access to other planes of awareness. (Hence the old saw, “Reality is for people who can’t handle drugs.” Needless to say this comes with risks as well.) More recently, pills have revolutionized brain function among the mentally ill, beginning with the discovery of chlorpromazine in 1950.

Now, drugs that enhance mental functioning in healthy people are becoming known and — increasingly — used. We are in the midst of a series of discoveries that will progressively enhance mental abilities. Alpha-CaM kinase II causes remembering a bad memory to erase it, at least in mice. Credible evidence exists for other biomolecular approaches to cognitive enhancement, some listed in the table.

Table. Some cognitive enhancers. Not intended as a sole source of information.

But why bother with pills if you could be more targeted, specific, and fast another way? Direct electrical stimulation of the brain. A “brain pacemaker,” if you will. Things have come a long way from the circa-1900 book that suggested applying battery power near the eyes to see “colors” as an interesting electrical “experiment” for the amateur scientist. It is also several decades from the 1930’s, when shock therapy was invented (it is still used for treating depression). But remember we want targeted. Sean Miller’s Feb. 2007 surgery involved inserting electrodes directly into his brain. The ultimate result was relief from years of severe depressive disease. By 2009, tens of thousands of people had been treated for another disease, Parkinson’s, using electrodes in their brains. It had also been shown useful in treating obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). There is no reason this technology has to stop at treating disease. Like psychoactive medicine, it could potentially enhance function in healthy individuals as well. Finding the exact location in the brain to stimulate to, say, motivate yourself for an hour, feel more romantic, or remember where you put the darn cell phone last is important. Who knows what would happen if you accidentally stimulated the wrong place? Luckily progress in brain scanning technology is improving exponentially: resolution is doubling about every three years; speed (important for capturing transient brain activity) is doubling about every two. At that rate we’ll know a lot more about where the brain does what a couple of years from now (where “now” is any time point you like).

Still, no matter how accurate, there will always be curmudgeons like me who balk at jabbing wires through their skulls. That’s why the third generation of brain stimulation techniques holds such interest (first generation — pills, second — electrodes, third — noninvasive neurostimulation). One of these methods is transcranial electromagnetic stimulation, or TMS. First approved for fighting depression, the physics is pretty basic. An electromagnet is positioned to direct magnetic lines of force through the area of the brain that is to be affected. The magnet is activated with alternating current, or AC (ordinary household AC changes direction twice per cycle at 60 cycles/second in many countries, for example). Changing current causes the magnetism to change correspondingly, which in turn causes changing electrical fields in the affected brain tissue, which changes the electrical activity of neurons in that area. Another method uses ultrasound, or sound waves above the audible range of frequencies. The nanomechanical effects of these sound waves on neuron membrane ion channels can, it seems, cause neural firing.

In the longer term future, people want their kids to be smarter. Kids will benefit. Even small changes in IQ appear to cause significant increases in earning power — roughly $15,000 per IQ point in the US in 2000 dollars. Worldwide, “Iodine deficiency… can significantly lower the IQ of whole populations.” and can be alleviated by iodizing table salt in affected countries at extremely low cost. Education is the classical approach to increasing intelligence, of course, but it’s hard work and shortcuts are therefore of interest. Playing classical music to junior while she’s still in the womb may be fun for mom, but as an intelligence enhancer for the upcoming little one, its usefulness is still speculative. However, taking choline dietary supplements during pregnancy makes for smarter offspring in rats (so why not in people?). Choline is a nutrient found in egg yolks, lecithin, and other sources. When women who are pregnant or lactating take cod liver oil supplements, their children are smarter at 4 years of age, which is good, but any effect is no longer clear by age 7 — not so good.

Very long term, controlling the genes of our children to increase their intelligence will become more feasible. Technologies include genetically modifying sperm and egg cells, generating multiple embryos in the lab and implanting only the desired one in the womb, and abortion based on analysis of embryonic DNA such as from amniocentesis. Some people will not do this, of course, but others will; some countries and religions will forbid it, but others won’t. Success will depend on identifying which genes help control intelligence. As of this writing, no single gene is known to have a great effect, but a number appear to have small effects and others have yet to be discovered. Many genes with small effects may add up to a large effect. Thus, in several years when enough people have had their genomes sequenced, it will become feasible for biostatisticians to determine the influence on intelligence of every normal variation of each of our 20,000-odd genes. At that point overbabies, designed for their mental abilities, will be in sight.

What you can do

First, be careful. The risks of abuse, unanticipated side effects, and long-term, delayed effects should be a concern. Civilization as we know it could be at risk if the wrong mind modifiers are widely applied and turn out to have delayed, unanticipated, and dangerous side effects. Even honey water, over a long period, might increase chance of diabetes through repeated blood sugar spiking. Yet the competitive disadvantage of non-use could also be a problem in some circumstances. Supporting anti-doping efforts could help solve that problem. Although we are discussing becoming smarter, the term anti-“doping” exists for a reason! Finally, be careful.

Notes

“Alpha-CaM kinase II…”: L. Gravitz, Selectively deleting memories, Technology Review, Oct. 22, 2008, discussing the work of neurologist Joseph Z. Tsien. Http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/21593/.

“Another method uses ultrasound…”: W. J. Tyler, Y. Tufail, M. Finsterwald, M. L. Tauchmann, E. J. Olson, and C. Majestic, Remote excitation of neuronal circuits using low-intensity, low-frequency ultrasound, PLoS One, Oct. 29, 2008, vol. 3, no. 10, http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0003511.

Table: entries caffeine through methylphenidate are reviewed and additional references provided in A. Sandberg and N. Bostrom, Converging cognitive enhancements, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2006, vol. 1093, pp. 201 – 227, http://www.nickbostrom.com/papers/converging.pdf. For piracetam and Hydergine, start with a Web search. For donezepil, see M. S. Mumenthaler, et al., Psychoactive drugs and pilot performance: a comparison of nicotine, donepezil, and alcohol effects, Neuropsychopharmacology, Jul. 2003, vol. 28, no. 7, pp. 1366 – 1373, http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v28/n7/full/1300202a.html.

“But why bother with pill…”: J. Graham, Deep brain stimulation offers hope to people with treatment-resistant illnesses, Sept. 12, 2008, Physorg.com, www.physorg.com/news140412075.html.

“Luckily progress in brain scanning technology is improving exponentially…”: R. Kurzweil, The Singularity is Near, Penguin Books, 2005, pp. 159 – 160.

“…roughly $15,000 per IQ point”: S. D. Grosse et al., Economic gains resulting from the reduction in children’s exposure to lead in the United States, Environmental Health Perspectives, 2002 June; vol. 110, no. 6, pp. 563 – 569 (see Table 2), http://www.ehponline.org/members/2002/110p563-569grosse/grosse-full.html.

“Worldwide, ‘Iodine deficiency…”: The scope of the problem, Micronutrient Initiative, http://www.micronutrient.org/english/view.asp?x=578. See also N. D. Kristof, Raising the world’s IQ, The New York Times, Dec. 4, 2008, New York edition p. A43, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/opinion/04kristof.html.

“However, taking choline…”: Sandberg and Bostrom, pp. 207, 223.

“…take cod liver oil…”: I. B. Helland et al., Effect of supplementing pregnant and lactating mothers with n-3 very-long-chain fatty acids on children’s IQ and body mass index at 7 years of age, Pediatrics, 2008 Aug., vol. 122, no. 2, pp. e472-e479, http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/122/2/e472.