Augmenting Cognition

Human beings have had a brain for only about 100,000 years, a recent development that nonetheless gives us creative abilities no other living species seems to match, including the capacity to study the organ itself. Because survival and success depend on how well we use that brain, researchers around the world are working to map its workings, reverse-engineer its design, and expand its capacity. They draw on mathematics, physics, chemistry, pharmacology, biology, psychology, computer science, information science, and engineering, which has opened what the authors call the AugCog Era.

The emerging field of AugCog aims to build rigorous, science-based methods for restoring and enhancing cognition. Its tools include brain-computer interfaces and various drugs. It also examines how basic brain states, such as sleep, and everyday activities, such as dance, affect cognitive performance.

This volume addresses our entry into the AugCog Era through contributions from specialists across the globe. It is organized in two sections. The first covers current methodologies, and the second considers the social and ethical questions the field raises. A short interlude on cognition, which recounts the story of savant syndrome, separates the two sections.