Gin and juice: Modafinil tightens up the drinker's brain at rest

摘要

You know Tommy. He's the guy who closes Trees Lounge at 2 am (always gets the last pour), yet somehow makes it back by 6 am for his daily eye-opener. What happens when Tommy gets some "juice" to go with his steady diet of ethanol? Well, it looks like his neural networks get tightened up considerably, and this may be very good news for his mind and brain (not to mention his family and his employer).Individuals with chronic alcohol dependence (as with other psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and attention-deficit disorder) exhibit disturbances in cognitive control (1), which is most often defined as the representation and use of information, typically rules, to guide behavior in a flexible, context-sensitive and goal-oriented manner (2). This is considered important because without this capability, humans have pervasive problems navigating life, especially in social relationships. Cognitive control is usually operationalized in experimental settings with the use of tasks that require subjects to overcome a habitual, overlearned or "pre-potent" response tendency.