ArticleScience and engineering ethics2021
Cognitive Enhancement: Unanswered Questions About Human Psychology and Social Behavior.
Article in Science and engineering ethics, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed.
- Caffeine and modafinil counteract sleep deprivation through distinct neurocognitive pathways: an ERP study of object working memory.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Article
- Exploring the Hypothetical Impact of Genetic Engineering on Ethnicity: An Analysis of a Large-Scale Data Set Retrieved From a Museal Setting.Bioethics · 2026Article
- A Mini-review on Unlocking Cognitive Enhancement: An Innovative Strategy for Optimal Brain Functions.Central nervous system agents in medicinal chemistry · 2026Review
- Enhancing Soldiers for Future Warfare: Good Science; Bad Ethics?Science and engineering ethics · 2025Article
- Electroactive Proteinoid-Quantum Dot Systems.Small science · 2025Article
- Ginkgo Biloba as a niche theme cognitive enhancer agent, 1420 dokumen of Scopus database. A bibliometric study from 1988 to 2024.F1000Research · 2025Article
- Neurobiology and systems biology of stress resilience.Physiological reviews · 2024Review
- "In the spectrum of people who are healthy": Views of individuals at risk of dementia on using neurotechnology for cognitive enhancement.Neuroethics · 2024Article
- Adapting Ourselves, Instead of the Environment: An Inquiry into Human Enhancement for Function and Beyond.Integrative psychological & behavioral science · 2024Article
- Do Medical Universities Students Use Cognitive Enhancers while Learning?-Conclusions from the Study in Poland.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Effort-Reward Imbalance at Work and Prescription Drug Misuse-Prospective Evidence from Germany.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Review
- Cooperative behavior in the workplace: Empirical evidence from the agent-deed-consequences model of moral judgment.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Article
- Parents' Perceptions on the Debated Parenting Practice of Cognitive Enhancement in Healthy Children and Adolescents.Journal of cognitive enhancement : towards the integration of theory and practice · 2022Article
- Neuroenhancements in the Military: A Mixed-Method Pilot Study on Attitudes of Staff Officers to Ethics and Rules.Neuroethics · 2022Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Stimulant drugs, transcranial magnetic stimulation, brain-computer interfaces, and even genetic modifications are all discussed as forms of potential cognitive enhancement. Cognitive enhancement can be conceived as a benefit-seeking strategy used by healthy individuals to enhance cognitive abilities such as learning, memory, attention, or vigilance. This phenomenon is hotly debated in the public, professional, and scientific literature. Many of the statements favoring cognitive enhancement (e.g., related to greater productivity and autonomy) or opposing it (e.g., related to health-risks and social expectations) rely on claims about human welfare and human flourishing. But with real-world evidence from the social and psychological sciences often missing to support (or invalidate) these claims, the debate about cognitive enhancement is stalled. In this paper, we describe a set of crucial debated questions about psychological and social aspects of cognitive enhancement (e.g., intrinsic motivation, well-being) and explain why they are of fundamental importance to address in the cognitive enhancement debate and in future research. We propose studies targeting social and psychological outcomes associated with cognitive enhancers (e.g., stigmatization, burnout, mental well-being, work motivation). We also voice a call for scientific evidence, inclusive of but not limited to biological health outcomes, to thoroughly assess the impact of enhancement. This evidence is needed to engage in empirically informed policymaking, as well as to promote the mental and physical health of users and non-users of enhancement.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.