The learning and memory deficits have been recognized as severe and consistent neurological disorders associated with numerous neurodegenerative states. Cognition enhancers can be used to facilitate attention abilities and acquisition, storage and retrieval of information, and to attenuate the impairment of cognitive functions associated with age and age-related pathologies. Research in this area has gained momentum only in the recent past after the biochemical and physiological basis of these processes have been understood. A considerable alteration in the neurotransmission is a consistent finding in cognitive disorders. Therefore, many therapeutic strategies to augment the concentration of neurotransmitters in brain such as cholinergic agents, biogenic amines and neuropeptides etc. have been evaluated in cognitive deficits. CNS modulators are the type of antiamnesics that act via modulation of the neurological processes underlying memory storage. These include psychostimulants, excitatory amino acids and most important of all “nootropics”. In this review, some conventional as well as newer strategies have been discussed.
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