[thedoc (OP)]

youri asked the Naked Scientists:
   
Recently i heard about a chemical solution injectable that makes people smarter, it makes people see clearly.It seems students discovered this but it's not publicly known.Do you know what the name of this is ?

What do you think?

[daveco]

Creatine has some weighty evidence behind it that shows a direct correlation between daily use and improvements in cognition.

 

[chiralSPO]

The word "smarter" is imprecise, but I will try to offer some possible answers:

Sugar and oxygen are both necessary for the brain to function, as well as adequate levels of hydration and electrolytes (especially sodium, potassium, calcium, and chloride). There are also many nutrients (like vitamins, minerals, essential amino acids, cholesterol, and fatty acids) that are necessary for building and maintaining healthy brains. A deficiency of any of the chemicals mentioned in this paragraph will lead to decreased brain function, but increasing them above required levels won't improve brain function.

For short periods (on the order of hours), low doses of stimulants like caffeine, nicotine and amphetamine can improve the ability to focus and slightly increase thought rates, which can help for studying, completing exams and working on projects, but don't really make a person "smarter." There is evidence that it is harder to remember information learned while under the influence of a drug, once drug use is discontinued (but may come back when the drugs are re-administered https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State-dependent_memory). Increasing the dosage beyond a certain point becomes detrimental to focus (it can be very hard to study when having a panic attack!)

There is some evidence that psychedelic drugs like LSD, psilocybin and MDMA can allow people to solve problems they would otherwise not be able to solve, but the mechanism is not at all clear, any studies are controversial, and much of the evidence is anecdotal.

I am unaware of any chemicals that act as "smart drugs" as seen in the movies.

[smart]

- Dopamine is thought to play a fundamental role in cognitive intelligence, memory formation, and learning.
- Delta9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) also increases cerebral blood flow (CBF) in the frontal lobe, the brain center for creative thinking.
- DHA (omega 3) is necessary for proper hippocampal function, neurogenesis, and BDNF signaling.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10585240

bubye!!

[Bored chemist]

If there was something that made people "smarter" then evolution would have discovered it long ago, and we would already have it.

[smart]

It is well known that the dopaminergic system is implicated in learning and memory consolidation. See: http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fncir.2014.00093/full