I saw Luc Besson's
Lucy this weekend.
The plot hinges on
Lucy recieving an
overdose of CPh4, a
drug (natural
product found in
pregnancy at week
6) that accelerates
brain activation. The
plot is fun but full of
holes. Morgan
Freeman, the
neuroscientist in the
film, claims that we
only use 10% of our
brains. This simply is
false. We use our
whole brain--100%--
just not all at once.
For example, we
may use our visual
system
sometimes--our
taste system some
different time--
anger sometimes--
love other times--in
any case, the whole
brain gets a
workout over a long
enough period of
time.
The human brain
runs hot--it is 3% of
body mass but uses
20% of our energy
(up to 40% during
critical growth)--we
could not afford
100% use
continually--too
much glucose. What
would high continual
use look like if it
ever happened--
would we achieve
this supposedly
superhuman level--
not really-- clinically
we see extreme
nerve activity in
epilepsy--epilepsy is
uncontrolled
excitation--if Lucy
really had 100% of
her brain continually
active she would be
writhing on the
ground in a seizure.
Indeed she would
pretty quickly go
into a state of
status epilepticus--
which would be
fatal.
So the science is
just wrong.
Besson claims CPh4
is an actual
substance. Could be.
There is a class of
agents called
growth factors.
There are numerous
growth factor for
neurons, as well as
for glia (nerve
support cells)--
examples include
NGF, BDNGF; indeed
there re about 100
different growth
factors, and CPh4
could be one of
these. The film
mentions that CPh4
promotes bone
growth--there
indeed are bone
growth factors.
They are called
BMPs--bone
morphogenetic
proteins
That said, excess
growth of the brain
would not increase
functional capacity--
we call increased
brain growth cancer
not superpowers --
increased bone
growth would be
acromegaly--not a
pretty sight for Ms
J--she deserves
better.
So, sorry all, but we
are not going to get
to genius level by
taking a wonder-pill.
In closing I might
add that I have
taken some
purported cognition
enhancers-I also
have tested a
number of them
clinically-sorry--they
just don't work.
Pretty gbood movie,
however.