The improvement of cognitive abilities by means of pharmaceuticals or other technical methods actually developed for medical treatment is a field of enhancement that is still little researched. The current debate on the use of medical or technical means and procedures by healthy people to optimize mental qualities is therefore based on the non-therapeutic use of psychotropic drugs, which is becoming more and more prevalent due to increasing performance pressure and easier availability. The older designation of the field of investigation as "cosmetic psychopharmacology" refers on the one hand to presumed opportunities to improve mental well-being, which could for instance be offered by modern antidepressants with a favorable side effect profile. On the other hand, the focus has increasingly shifted to attempts by healthy people to positively influence cognitive abilities such as concentration or memory by taking psychostimulants, for example to better meet increasing academic and or professional demands. The term "cognitive enhancement" has become established as a separate term for improvement efforts in the cognitive area. In recent years, the term "neuroenhancement" has become established in the academic field as a broadly defined generic term that refers not only to cognitive abilities but also to emotional and motivational optimization goals and, in addition to pharmaceutical preparations, also includes neural or genetic engineering procedures. In media and press reports, the phenomenon is also referred to – usually in a derogatory manner – as "brain doping".