首页
登录
职称英语
Can Drugs Make Us Happier? Samrter? It depends on what i
Can Drugs Make Us Happier? Samrter? It depends on what i
游客
2024-02-28
41
管理
问题
Can Drugs Make Us Happier? Samrter?
It depends on what is meant by "happy" and "smart."
There are already drugs that brighten moods, like Prozac, and other antidepressants that control levels of a brain chemical called serotonin. While originally meant to treat depression, these drugs have been used for other psychological conditions like shyness and anxiety and even by otherwise healthy people to feel better about themselves.
But is putting people in a better mood really making them happy? People can also drown their sorrows in alcohol or get a euphoric feeling using narcotics, but few people who do so would be called truly happy.
The President’s Council on Bioethics said in a recent report that while antidepressants might make some people happier, they can also substitute for what can truly bring happiness: a sense of satisfaction with one’s identity, accomplishments and relationships.
"In tike pursuit of happiness human beings have always worried about falling for the appearance of happiness and missing its reality," the council wrote. It added, "Yet a fraudulent happiness is just what the pharmacological management of our mental lives threatens to confer upon us."
Now the race is on to develop pills to make people smarter, at least in one sense. These drugs, several of them already in clinical trials, aim at memory loss that occurs in people with Alzheimer’s disease or a precursor called mild cognitive impairment.
But it is lost on no one that if a memory drug works and is safe, it may one day be used by healthy people to learn faster and remember longer.
Studies have already shown that animals can be made to do both whelk the activity of certain genes is increased or decreased. Dr. Tom ’Fully, a professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, created genetically engineered fruit flies that he said had "photographic memory." In one session, he said, they could learn something that took normal flies 10 sessions.
"It immediately convinced everyone that memory was going to be just another biological process," Dr. Tully said. "There’s nothing special about it. That meant that it was going to be treatable and manip-ulable."
But experts say that improving memory will not necessarily make one smarter, in the sense of I.Q. , let alone in wisdom. "It would be a mistake to think that drugs that have an impact on memory necessarily will have an effect on intelligence," said Dr. Daniel L. Schachter, chairman of psychology at Harvard.
Dr. Tully, who is also acting chief scientific officer of Helicon Therapeutics, which is developing memory pills, agreed. "You don’t think better than you did before,’ he said. "You just get the facts in with less practice. ’ Still, he said, that would be significant help to students at exam time.
Any pill used widely by healthy people to improve memory would have to be extremely safe, so that the risks would not outweigh the benefit. Psychological side effects also remain a possibility.
"Is it a good thing to remember everything?" Dr. Tully asked. Could a brain too crammed with information suffer some sort of overload?
Dr. Joe Z. Tsien, a professor of molecular biology at Princeton who genetically engineered smarter mice a few years ago, says he is skeptical that the results can be transferred to people.
"If you look at how people improve their brain power, it’s through education," he said. "That has proven to have 100 percent efficiency with minimal side effects." [br] Dr. Tully created genetically engineered fruit flies that he said had" ______."
选项
答案
photographic memory
解析
答案在文章的第八段。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3489060.html
相关试题推荐
______(一个物体是否会浮起)dependsonthedensityofboththeobjectandthewater.Wheth
Sincewearesocialbeings,thequalityofourlivesdependsinlargemeasur
Sincewearesocialbeings,thequalityofourlivesdependsinlargemeasur
Sincewearesocialbeings,thequalityofourlivesdependsinlargemeasur
Isthecustomeralwaysright?Theanswer,itseems,dependsonwhichcountry
Isthecustomeralwaysright?Theanswer,itseems,dependsonwhichcountry
Isthecustomeralwaysright?Theanswer,itseems,dependsonwhichcountry
Wemust____________(扫除最大的障碍),andwhetherwecansucceedornotdependsonthe
Successinschooloratwork____________(与其说是靠天资,还不如说是靠勤奋)depends/reliesmoreo
CanDrugsMakeUsHappier?Samrter?Itdependsonwhati
随机试题
G
TheCoca-ColaCompanyexiststobenefitandrefresheveryoneittouches.Founded
当木结构施工需要采用国家现行有关标准尚未列人的新技术(新材料、新结构、新工艺)时
下列关于导流明渠的布置规定,说法正确的有()。A.泄量小,工程量小,宜优先
患者女,57岁。记忆力、智能进行性下降、性格改变8月。查体:神志清,表情淡漠,记
政府主管部门管理工程项目的能力非常强,采用的基本是( )。A:A模式 B:B
更换断路器指示灯时,应戴线手套,使用的工具应(),防止发生短路接地。适当匹配$;
中国的发展,将给全世界作出越来越大的_,给全世界带来越来越多的机遇,也给包括海
一般情况下,( )和价格的变动呈反方向变化;( )和市场价格呈正方向关系变化。A
建筑施工企业与物资供应企业就某建筑材料的供应签订合同,如该建筑材料不属于国家定价
最新回复
(
0
)