Page 111 - The Memory Program How to Prevent Memory Loss and Enhance Memory Power

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group of chemical neurotransmitters in the brain. Dopamine is a catecholamine that gives rise to the
subjective sensation of pleasure and promotes adventuresome, novelty-seeking behavior. Not
surprisingly, cocaine and amphetamines produce euphoria, a sense of being on top of the world, plus
high levels of energy.

My Amphetamine Study

I once took a single dose of amphetamine as a “normal” subject in a placebo-controlled study (I was
assigned to amphetamine, as I discovered later). Before taking the amphetamine, I did fairly well on
a neuropsychological task in which unusual shapes rapidly flashed on the computer screen.
According to the rules, I had to tap an electronic button whenever I decided that the flashing shape
on the display had previously been shown to me. Without my knowledge, the complexity of the
shapes that were presented were automatically adjusted on-line to keep me at an 80 percent accuracy
rate throughout the testing period. Later, I found out that although I scored well, the computer easily
boxed me into the 80 percent zone for accuracy.

But after I took the amphetamine, things changed dramatically. My performance became flawless
and the computer could not keep up; I was getting everything right even though the computer was
throwing all it could at me to try to drop my performance from 100 percent to 80 percent accuracy.
The investigator conducting the experiment later told me that she had to discard my data because my
TEAMFLY
100 percent accuracy rate eclipsed the 80 percent upper limit permitted in the experiment. So my
results could not be combined with those from all the other subjects who had stayed within the 80
percent accuracy paradigm set by the computer.

My performance wasn't related to learning the test, because the shapes were truly nonsensical,
even bizarre, and kept changing continuously on the computer screen. Rather, after a single dose of
amphetamine, the manner in which I processed information changed dramatically. Even though the
time interval between the flashing shapes was only a second or two, I felt as if I had all the time in
the world to think about each shape, decide if I had seen it before (memory processing), and then
respond by hitting the button if I had. The speed of processing of new information in my brain—
which in this study involved registering the shape and checking it against my memory data bank of
recently viewed shapes before making the decision to give the command to my fingers to tap (or not
to tap) the elec-

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