How Ritalin Works

After years of prescribing them, scientists finally learn the mechanics behind psychostimulants

By Holly Otterbein Posted 07.11.2008 at 10:24 am 8 Comments

Ritalin: Scientists are finally beginning to understand the mechanics of psychostimulants such as Ritalin. Sponge

You’d think that a drug prescribed to 10 million Americans would be well understood. But until now, scientists haven’t firmly grasped why Ritalin helps the scatterbrained. In a University of Wisconsin-Madison study published recently in Biological Psychiatry, researchers found that the stimulant works by optimizing brain signals in the prefrontal cortex.

The researchers fed rats different doses of Ritalin and then studied their neural activity, which was measured by electrodes implanted in their brains. They found that brain signals voyaging between the hippocampus (responsible for memory, among other things) and the prefrontal cortex (also responsible for memory) became more precise. Ritalin also made neurons play well with others – more neurons fired together, and less wandered off by themselves. When scientists upped the doses, however, the rats lost their focus – proving that, at least in the case of Ritalin, less is more.

[via Scientific American]

Previous Article: Flexible Focus

Next Article: Nuking Stowaways

Want to learn more about breakthroughs in electronics, medicine, nanotech, and more?
Subscribe to Popular Science today, for less than $1 per issue!

8 Comments

Link to this comment

Woomyse

07/13/08 at 11:30 pm

And they STILL won't legalize marijuana!

Link to this comment

stg30rg3

07/14/08 at 1:57 am

@Woomyse
- please, the two substances are completely different not only in function, but mechanism of delivery and while one is created in a lab the other has been so genetically engineered that it ought to be in a lab.

To equate the two is spurious at best.

Link to this comment

scubasdsteve87

07/14/08 at 4:28 am

I honestly find this article partially offensive. The writers should have chosen their words better. Since Ritalin is often prescribed to people with ADD and ADHD, they are essentially calling those with such disorders "scatterbrained".

Why am I offended? I was diagnosed with ADD halfway through 7th grade.

Thanks popsci. Your team has really hit the nail on the head with this one. Here I thought your staff was intelligent.

Link to this comment

macro820

07/14/08 at 5:29 am

From their source Sciam

"it strengthened choruses of neurons firing together and put a damper on scattered, uncoordinated activity."

Link to this comment

TheAnarkest

07/14/08 at 12:50 pm

I was forced to take ritalin when i was 10 and made me scatterbrained and suicidal and that's how ritalin works.

Link to this comment

akienm

07/16/08 at 2:57 am

The "Scatterbrained"?

I was so unhappy with your word choice I needed to create a log in just so I could reply.

How about the "Insensitive and stupid"?

Link to this comment

fejjarific

08/05/08 at 1:43 pm

Quit your whining. I have ADD too and I am not offended.... But I cannot remember why.

Science

+ More Photo Galleries

June 2013: American Energy Independence

Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more.