Those of you who have seen the movie Limitless know what I'm talking about. The main character is given a drug that activates receptors in the brain that allow you to use your whole brain instead of only 10%.
to an extent this is possible in real lifeAcetylcholine receptors, when activated, produce a nootropic effect. Nicotine, arecoline, cytisine, and muscarine all produce nootropic effects in the right doses. It's not just a nootropic though... The magnificent effects of psychedelics are from separate effects of the 5-HT2A receptor: by stimulating the prefrontal cortex which makes the rate and intensity of thought speed up, by allowing more acetylcholine to be released which makes your thoughts more clear, organized, and coherent, and by allowing for more abstract psychedelic thought through the dopamine system.
These effects can be reproduced on their own, partially. If acetylcholine receptor agonists are used alongside a small dose of a psychedelic (5-MeO-DMT might be best, because it lacks visuals and has an intense mind altering effect, but the Methyl Chavicol metabolite would also work, and so would LSC), thought processes are sped up and acetylcholine systems massively increase intelligence.
Combining these things could create a real life intelligence enhancing pill.
Possible ingredients (contradictions are possible, work very carefully here...):
Arecoline/muscarine/cytisine for acetylcholine agonization.
Small doses of a 5-HT2A agonist.
Galantamine for Acetylcholinesterase inhibition, and Acetylcholine receptor sensitization.
Mesembrine as a Phosphodiesterase type 4 inhibitor.
Piracetam
A combination pill like this would expand your mind in the same way psychedelics do, but you would remain in the physical world and be able to use your expanded mind in incredibly useful ways here.
The effects described in the Rhodiola Rosea thread http://herbs.maxforum.org/2011/07/30/rhodiola-rosea-being-a-powerful-cataylst-of-psycho/ are definitely from increased acetylcholine function.
It's possible that acetylcholine receptors, when overstimulated, actually downregulate. In that case we want to antagonize them slightly so they increase over time and result in permanently enhanced intelligence.
Other receptors, when agonized, upregulate. We want to agonize those receptors so they upregulate and permanently increase intelligence. Alpha4Beta2 nicotinic receptors upregulate when agonized, and nicotine only targets this and one other acetylcholine receptor. Nicotine would be incredibly useful in its pure form.
I need to find out whether muscarinic receptors up or downregulate when they're agonized. If they upregulate it would be amazingly useful to use arecoline as an agonist. Can someone find that out?
