Anyways, my opinion is that these drugs should be available for those who wish to take them. Those who do decide to take these enhancers should do so at their own risk and understand the consequences of using them. Also, I don’t see much of a difference between using cognitive enhancers and drinking caffeine/tea/energy drinks to give that extra boost of energy and concentration. Even in coffee, someone can overdose on caffeine, causing a seizure. In much of everything we intake, the dosage matters. Like Paracelsus said, everything can be a poison. The difference between a poison and a remedy is the dose.

Ultimately, I think this really concerns scientific literacy and the dissemination of scientific information in society. Understanding scientific information is central to health decisions and the health decisions a population makes have dramatic consequences for that society. One only needs to look at the rates of obesity and how this will burden society as a whole in coming years.

The use of vaccines is important for controlling and eradicating disease. Misinformation about this that convinces parents to forgo vaccines is dangerous.

Thank you for this article. It definitely provides food for thought!

Be well,
Tiffany

I think collaterals means branches, from what I am gleaning. Here are two examples:

“Reticular formation nuclei receive input from the periphery via collaterals from sensory pathways and from many regions of the cerebral cortex, limbic structures, and cerebellum.”

and here’s another where I gleaned “branches.”

“Long ascending and descending axons, with numerous collateral branches, originate from medical column neurons. These terminate in other regions of the reticular formation, limbic structures, hypothalamus, thalamus, cranial nerve nuclei, and the spinal cord.”