Modafinil has been used to treat narcolepsy and sleep apnea, but it has also become a popular drug for individuals seeking cognitive enhancement. Several placebo-controlled studies have investigated the effects of modafinil on simple tasks such as reaction speed.
These studies have shown that single-dose modafinil significantly enhances performance on cognitive tasks in non-sleep-deprived samples. This article will review these findings.
Boosts Cognitive Performance
While Modafinil Australia Online is FDA-approved to treat excessive sleepiness (narcolepsy), it has also become popular off-label as a cognitive enhancer for individuals seeking to improve their cognitive performance on tests or during specific activities. However, the evidence on the cognitive enhancing effects of Modafinil in healthy individuals is conflicting.
In some studies, Modafinil was shown to improve performance on complex tasks that require attention and cognitive flexibility. However, results on simple tasks such as verbal learning and speed of processing are mixed. One possible explanation is that the participants already had high baseline scores on these simple tasks before taking the drug.
Scientists are not sure exactly how modafinil boosts cognition, but they know that it does so by directly increasing cortical catecholamine levels and indirectly upregulating cerebral serotonin, orexin, and histamine levels. It is thought that these brain chemicals are important for concentration and alertness.
Modafinil may also increase the resting activity of certain brain areas, including those involved in attention and WM. The increased FC we have found between the V1 and prefrontal cortex during the rs-fMRI protocol suggests that this may play a role in the enhanced cognitive function observed in our study. This enhanced cognition could be useful in counteracting deficits associated with brain aging or in mild cognitive impairment or early Alzheimer’s disease patients, who often experience difficulties with inhibition and WM control.
Overcomes Daytime Sleepiness
In some cases, Modafinil is prescribed to patients suffering from shift work sleep disorder (SWSD) as a means of combatting excessive daytime sleepiness. Patients with SWSD have difficulty getting enough quality sleep because their work-dictated schedules conflict with their internal circadian rhythms, resulting in reduced alertness and lower performance. This leads to a lack of productivity, higher absenteeism, and accidents at the workplace. Modafinil is a powerful wakefulness drug that can help restore circadian balance, improve alertness, and reduce excessive daytime sleepiness in these patients.
Modafinil (Modawake 200 mg) has also been used by healthy individuals to improve cognitive function. The non-medical use of this pharmaceutical has been a subject of debate as it challenges the traditional medical narrative of narcolepsy and alertness disorders. Media discourses have constructed a war frame around the non-medical use of this medication, positing that it is an attempt to ‘fight’ sleepiness or increase mental performance.
The war frame constructs a narrative that presents sleep as a dangerous and deadly ‘enemy’ that needs to be fought and defeated by any means necessary. People who use Modafinil to enhance their cognitive abilities become the heroes of this war, using it as a way to beat ‘sleep attacks’ and lead a normal life. This narrative has the potential to exacerbate anxieties about the pharmaceuticalisation of everyday life and the blurring of the lines between medicine and pharmacological enhancement.
Enhances Focus
There is a growing body of evidence showing that modafinil enhances cognitive performance on tests of attention and memory in non-sleep-deprived healthy people. In one double-blind placebo-controlled study, a 4-day regimen of modafinil 200 mg was found to reduce errors on the WCST and Hayling Sentence Completion Test (both tests require cognitive control) as well as improve performance on a version of the Pauli test which requires sustained attention (Saletu et al 2007). fMRI analysis showed that these effects were correlated with activation of dorsolateral PFC and anterior cingulate cortex.
In another study, a single dose of modafinil improved performance on tests of digit span, visual pattern recognition memory, and spatial planning, and slowed response times on a stop signal reaction task (Turner et al 2003). Subjects reported feeling more alert and attentive to drugs. These results are consistent with previous studies in sleep-deprived subjects.
fMRI also revealed that modafinil increased resting activity in V1 and the prefrontal cortex, including left BA 46. This area is involved in the interplay between attention and WM systems and is known to modulate cognitive performance. It is possible that the modafinil-driven FC effects in this region help to compensate for deficits of the aging brain, or may be used in MCI and early-stage Alzheimer’s patients where the impaired interplay between WM and attentional systems leads to poor inhibitory control of prepotent responding.
Improves Memory
Researchers have been exploring cognitive-enhancing drugs (CEDs) to improve the performance of healthy individuals. Most of the CED-related research has focused on younger adults, but there are indications that these drugs can help compensate for the subtle and subclinical decline associated with brain aging or dementia.
Modafinil has been shown to enhance cognitive performance in several simple tasks, including psychomotor vigilance tests. These studies suggest that modafinil improves not only alertness but also executive function, which includes the ability to think divergently and suppress distractions. Moreover, the benefits of modafinil appear to be dose-dependent and extend beyond simple reaction speed to visual stimuli.
In one study, a single dose of modafinil 200 mg significantly improved performance on both forward and backward digit span tasks and trended toward improving delayed visual recognition memory and the Tower of London test in schizophrenic patients being treated with atypical antipsychotic medications (Turner et al, 2004b). Modafinil was found to increase resting brain activity in the cerebellum, which is involved in memory processes.
In another study, a single dose of modafinil 100 mg increased performance on a visual sustained attention task and exhibited significant effects on the P300 amplitude in the frontal and anterior cingulate cortex. The latter area is implicated in cognitive function by its connections with the prefrontal lobe, which plays a crucial role in regulating impulsivity and vigilance.