| Sumario: | A recent study shows that amphetamines are selective in their action, boosting activity in some parts of the brain while calming others. Daniel Weinberger, a psychologist at the National Institute of Mental Health, and his colleagues gave amphetamines to eight men and women and then had them work on an abstract reasoning test that made heavy demands on the prefrontal cortex. The subjects were later asked to perform a task that utilized the hippocampus. Using PET scans to determine which regions of the brain were most active, the researchers found that amphetamines only enhanced activity in the brain area engaged in the task at hand, while in the parts of the brain not being taxed they acted like a wet blanket.
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