‘Learning pill’ step nearer

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34131, 19 April 1976, Page 13

‘Learning pill’ step nearer

(By

LEONARD SANTORELLI,

Reuters science editor, through N.Z.P.A.)

LONDON, April 18. Scientists have taken the first tentative steps towards developing a “learning pill” with successful trials of a new drug that is claimed to improve memory. In tests on students, the drug is credited with boost-! ing memory, a key factor in learning, by up to 20 per cent. This could open exciting possibilities for patients with mental disabilities, as well as people who just want to absorb more information. The chemical, Nootropyl, is the latest advance on a broad front of research into drugs w’hich make learning easier, and there are no side-effects. The claims for the drug have been made by Dr i Stuart Dimond, senior lec-

turer in psychology at university College, Cardiff, where the tests on groups of students were performed. Nootropyl works like; this: The human brain is! split into two, like the halves of an apple, con-! nected by a bunch of fibres,! and the drug has the effect! of intensifying the transfer of information from one side to the other, according to Dr Dimond. As in some classic scientific discoveries, the unique properties of Nootropyl Were stumbled across by accident, according to Dr Dimond.

Belgian and Dutch scien-| tists were administering the; drug to cats and mice in ex-i periments to pinpoint which parts of the brain controlled! certain functions, and they! noticed strange things hap-! pening. The animals given the! drug made fewer mistakes

than the others in finding a path through a maze to get at food. Eventually the tests were extended to humans. Sixteen students at Cardiff took daily doses of either Nootropyl or an inactive placebo — nobody knew which was which — and then, for the next two weeks were set a series of learning tests. The two groups fared about the same in checks on physical co-ordination, but marked differences emerged in tests of memory power. In one, for instance, they were shown batches of words on a revolving drum, and were then asked to write down as many as they could remember. First, the two groups showed similar results, but after two weeks the students on the drug showed a 15 to 20 per cent improvement in their ability to recall the i words.

Similarly, when the groups had to memorise two series of words spoken simultaneously over headphones, those on Nootropyl did 15 per cent better after two weeks. “Our results show it is possible to improve aspects of learning in man, and that is very important,” said Dr Dimond. Clearly the experiments were on too small a scale to draw conclusions about the speedy development of a tablet that can improve intellectual performance, an idea that has long fascinated scientists, but Dr Dimond said that such a pill was not far away. “The important thing is not what this particular substance can do. But if one drug can act upon one part of the intellect, then perhaps others can act on different parts of the brain,” he said.