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For a couple of thousand years, smokers have sought a quick concentration boost by firing up a cigarette.

It turns out that cognitive buzz isn’t just in smokers’ heads. Scientists have found that nicotine really does boost certain transmitters in the brain that can help people think better. Now, the pharmaceutical industry hopes to improve on the effect, minus the lung cancer.

Earlier this summer, biopharmaceutical company Targacept reported that a compound called ispronicline acted like nicotine to increase memory and concentration in elderly test subjects. Targacept next plans to test the drug on people with Alzheimer’s disease.

If successful, ispronicline will be at the head of a whole new class of drugs that target neuronal nicotinic receptors. The receptors, found on nerve cells in the brain, respond to two chemicals: acetylcholine, which is found naturally in the brain, and nicotine.

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