Aniracetam and Behavior

Aniracetam is a therapeutically useful cognition enhancer (nootropic) for alleviating anxiety and treating various neurodegenerative conditions. Aniracetam is shown to enhance both glutamatergic neurotransmission and long-term potentiation (LTP) formation. Previous studies of aniracetam have focused on acute administration in different models of disease and have demonstrated dramatic cognition-rescuing effects. We investigated if, given a daily oral regimen at a clinically established dose, cognitive performance could be elevated in healthy C57 Black 6 male mice. In a double-blind, placebo-control design, we investigated the performance-enhancing potential of aniracetam on a variety of aspects of cognitive behavior. This study is timely considering the growing community of laypeople self-administering nootropics. Our findings suggest that while aniracetam is clinically effective to reverse impairment it does not appear useful as a cognitive enhancer in unimpaired populations