Comment · Fri, June 21, 2013 · Ceretropic
Effect of modafinil on learning performance and neocortical long-term potentiation in rats
Original post in this thread
YourFathersMother · 5 points
As the title mentions, this study was performed on rats, not humans, so come to your own conclusions.
Here are the key points, in plain English, which are all in the context of chronic usage and without my interpretation (I'm not your mother):
* may have a favourable profile on performance of visuo-spatial tasks
* influences negatively problem-solving abilities when confronting the rat to a sequencing task
* impaired capacity of the rat prefrontal cortex to develop LTP (LTP is widely considered one of the major cellular mechanisms that underlies learning and memory)
Make of it what you will. Better yet, make me a sammich.
What they were answering
Direct reply to the original post — see the thread post above.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic
Thank you for including a summary. I think that's beneficial for a lot of readers.
Here is the full study: http://ge.tt/5T20Pyj/v/0?c
>modafinil did not significantly modify working memory errors
but decreased long-term memory errors on the Olton 4
×
4 maze,
meaning that the drug may have a favourable profile on visuo-
spatial tasks (typically, a hippocampus-dependent task) when
chronically administered. On the other hand, chronic modafinil
resulted in a marked decrease of successful responses in a com-
plex operant conditioning learning, which means that repeated
administration of the drug influences negatively problem-solving
abilities when confronting the rat to a sequencing task (typically, a
prefrontal cortex-dependent task). In addition,
in vivo
electrophys-
iology showed that modafinil resulted in impaired capacity of the
rat prefrontal cortex to develop LTP after tetanization.