The Cognition Blueprint
12 weeks, six arms, one pick each
Everything on this page is free. The stack, why each pick beat its alternatives, every option, the bloodwork and the safety lines. The week-by-week schedule and the decision rules are the members half.
"Cognition" is not one thing, and that is why most nootropic stacks disappoint. Attention, memory encoding, verbal fluency, processing speed and mood-driven motivation run on different systems — and the compound that fixes one does nothing for another. The most useful thing this page can do is make you name your actual complaint. "I cannot start things" is a dopaminergic problem. "I cannot hold what I read" is cholinergic. "Everything feels flat and effortful" is more likely mood or inflammation than either. Pick the arm that matches the sentence you would use to describe the problem. And sleep sits above all six arms. Memory consolidation happens during sleep, not during study — it is in the foundation below rather than the stack because it is not optional and it is not a compound. If you are sleeping badly, fixing that outperforms everything on this page and costs nothing.
Can you run all of them? Yes - and here is what it costs
This is a general protocol. You make the final call on how much of it to run — or have it built around your labs.
Which of these 6 is actually you?
This tells you where your biggest leverage is — where to start, not where to stop. Read the But line too: it is what each lane cannot do for you, which is the part a list of options never tells you.
Before any of it — the foundation
These four are not a disclaimer at the bottom of the page. They are the reason the rest of it works, and every one of them is free.
Growth hormone is released in pulses during deep sleep, insulin sensitivity is measurably worse after one bad night, and appetite regulation collapses without it. Every compound below works through a system that sleep already governs. This is not filler advice — it is the highest-leverage item on the page and it is free.
The single dietary variable with the most consistent evidence behind it for body composition, in both directions — building and preserving. Under-eating protein while running anything anabolic is paying for a signal with no substrate to act on.
Nothing here substitutes for mechanical tension. Compounds change how well you recover from and adapt to training; they do not replace the stimulus. A protocol run without training reliably produces the side effects and not the results.
Non-exercise activity is the largest and most variable component of daily energy expenditure, and it is the one that quietly falls when you start dieting. Tracking it stops the metabolic adaptation people blame on their thyroid.
The stack
Said once. This category has more marketing than evidence and the human data is limited on most of it. That is not a reason to rank these against each other — unproven is not the same as ineffective — but it is a reason to expect less than the forums promise. One thing specific to this goal: cognitive effects are the easiest of any category to imagine. Expectation alone produces a real perceived improvement, which is why the measurement note below matters more here than on any other page.
Each pick names what it was chosen over and why. That is the difference between a blueprint and a list — if you disagree with a choice, the alternative is right there and swapping it does not break the rest.
Peptides 1
Short amino-acid chains that signal rather than force. Almost all are injected or intranasal, they need reconstituting, and they are the reason most people are on this site.
*'Making Adamax the main for BDNF is a good idea. Semax can be an option.'* A semax analogue with a longer duration - same neurotrophic argument, fewer administrations.
Selank is the anxiolytic counterpart from the same Russian research programme — same family, aimed at anxiety rather than cognition. Adamax is a Semax analogue. N-Acetyl Selank is a modified-stability version. Cerebrolysin is a porcine-derived peptide mix with the most clinical data of the group, in stroke and dementia. Cortexin is a similar polypeptide complex. Semax is the base because it is the cognitive-facing member of the family and intranasal dosing avoids the injection this arm otherwise needs.
Stack this arm deeper8 optional add-ons
Each of these sits in this same pathway, so it starts the week this pathway starts. Swapping one in for the pick above does not change the schedule.
The previous pick for this arm, kept as an option. BDNF is the growth factor governing neuroplasticity — the brain's capacity to form and strengthen connections. Semax is a fragment of ACTH with the hormonal activity removed, and it raises BDNF and NG
The trade-off Cam moved it out of the lead spot on sign-off; the reasoning for its replacement is above.
The anxiolytic sibling — modulates GABA and serotonin without sedation. Worth pairing when the thing blocking your thinking is anxiety rather than capacity, which is more often true than people admit.
The trade-off It is aimed at anxiety, not cognition. If you are not anxious it has little to offer.
The most clinically studied option in this arm — trials in stroke recovery and dementia. A porcine brain-derived peptide mixture rather than a single molecule.
The trade-off Injectable, expensive, and a course is typically 10–20 days rather than ongoing. Not the same thing as cerebroprotein hydrolysate, which is sold similarly and is a different product.
An angiotensin IV analogue reported to be orders of magnitude more potent than BDNF at promoting synaptogenesis. The most aggressive option in this category by some distance.
The trade-off Essentially no human safety data, and forming new synapses indiscriminately is not obviously desirable — the brain prunes connections for a reason. Genuinely experimental.
The anxiolytic counterpart to semax from the same Russian research programme — semax is the drive half, selank the calm half, and they are routinely run together.
The trade-off Same evidence problem: almost entirely Russian, small, and rarely replicated. Intranasal.
Hericenones and erinacines stimulate nerve growth factor, which is a different neurotrophin from the BDNF the rest of this arm targets — the one that matters most for peripheral nerve.
The trade-off The human trials are small and mostly in older adults. A minority report low mood on it.
The best-evidenced botanical for memory consolidation specifically, with multiple randomised trials — and it works on retention rather than on acute performance.
The trade-off Twelve weeks before anything happens. GI upset is common; take it with food.
A cortex-specific bioregulator, where Semax and Selank are broad CNS peptides. The most targeted option in this arm if your concern is cortical function rather than mood or drive.
The trade-off Khavinson evidence base - one group, mostly Russian. Cerebrolysin is the option in this arm with genuine independent trials.
Small molecules 2
Orally active compounds, most of them with a prescription history and a real clinical evidence base. Less exciting than the peptides and frequently better evidenced.
Cerebral metabolism & blood flowMethylene Blue4 options
4 options — 0 to swap in, 4 to stack ontap to collapse
Glutamatergic & synaptic plasticityFasoracetam4 options
4 options — 0 to swap in, 4 to stack ontap to collapse
Health supplements & substrate
The floor underneath the compounds. Cheap, well tolerated, and the part that decides whether anything above it has a fair chance — a secretagogue on a magnesium deficiency is a rounding error.
Cholinergic — attention, encoding & recallAlpha-GPC6 options
6 options — 0 to swap in, 6 to stack ontap to collapse
Catecholamine & dopaminergic driveL-Tyrosine4 options
4 options — 0 to swap in, 4 to stack ontap to collapse
Neuroinflammation & membrane integrityPalmitoylethanolamide (PEA)4 options
4 options — 0 to swap in, 4 to stack ontap to collapse
The 12-week schedule
What goes in, what comes out, and when. The exact doses for each phase are inside the Academy — the structure below is free because it is the part you need to decide whether this fits your life.
| 1–4 | 5–8 | 9–12 | 13+ | Ongoing | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alpha-GPC | |||||
| Semax | |||||
| L-Tyrosine | |||||
| Fasoracetam |
Each bar is a week block that compound is running. The shape is free — it is what tells you whether this fits your life. The doses for each phase are the members half.
Fix the upstream variable, then add exactly one thing so you can attribute the result.
One arm. Four weeks. One measure. The temptation is to start four things because each is individually cheap, and it is exactly how people spend a year on nootropics and learn nothing about what works for them.
Nothing new. Everything moved to week 1 once attribution stopped counting as a reason to wait, and the BDNF arm needs the weeks.
Judge this arm at week 8, not week 2. If you are expecting a same-day feeling you will conclude it does nothing — the mechanism is neuroplasticity, and that is slow by definition.
Add ONE more arm, chosen by what is still missing.
Drive and initiation → the dopaminergic arm. Fog with physical symptoms → neuroinflammation. Everything effortful despite good sleep → cerebral metabolism. Pick by the sentence you would use to describe the problem.
Drop anything that did not move your measure.
Racetams and dopaminergics need breaks; tolerance is real in this category. Semax, glycine and the anti-inflammatory arm can run continuously. If your chosen measure did not move in 12 weeks, that compound is not working for you regardless of what it did for anyone else.
Tolerance in this category is real and hard to self-assess.
You are the least reliable judge of your own cognition, which is the specific problem with this page. Use an objective test — a timed task, a typing speed, a chess rating — because the felt sense of sharpness is exactly what a stimulant produces whether or not performance improved.
The doses for each phase are inside
Every compound above, dosed week by week, plus the reconstitution numbers and Coach Cam's notes on running it. $10/mo.
Unlock the schedule →Bloodwork
This panel exists to catch the boring causes before you spend money on the interesting ones. Brain fog has a short list of genuinely common, genuinely fixable drivers, and every one of them is on it. B12 deficiency causes cognitive symptoms and serum B12 lies — it can read normal while you are deficient at tissue level, which is why homocysteine and MMA exist. Low ferritin causes fog and fatigue well before it causes anaemia, so a normal CBC does not rule it out. Hypothyroidism presents as cognitive slowing more often than people expect, and needs a full panel rather than TSH alone. If any of these come back low, fix that first. It will outperform every compound on this page, and it is cheaper.
Before you start
Everything, drawn before you start. This is the one that decides which pathway is actually yours - and the only one you cannot go back and collect later.
Around week 8
The short list, drawn while you are running it. Not a progress report - it is the draw that catches the things that go wrong quietly.
After
Drawn at the end, against your own baseline. This is what turns the protocol into information rather than a feeling.
All three are drawn at Quest, 2,000+ US locations, no doctor visit, HSA/FSA eligible. Prefer to pick and choose? Every marker above links to its own page, and the panel builder assembles any combination.
Adjusting it
A protocol you cannot adjust is a protocol you abandon. Four situations come up on nearly every run of this — nausea that will not settle, a three-week stall, hair shedding, glucose moving the wrong way. Each one has a specific answer, and the wrong answer to a stall is the reason most people end up on six compounds that each do nothing.
The four decision rules are inside
What to change, what to leave alone, and how to tell a real stall from a water shift. $10/mo.
Unlock the decision rules →The lines I'd stop at
- New or worsening depression, or any thought of self-harm. Several compounds here act on dopamine and serotonin, and a bad reaction needs a person rather than a protocol adjustment. This is a stop-and-talk-to-someone line, not a dose-adjustment line.
- Heart palpitations or a resting heart rate that has climbed. The dopaminergic and eugeroic arms are the likely cause and neither is worth a cardiac symptom.
- Confusion, disorientation, or symptoms that are getting worse rather than better. Cognitive decline that progresses despite intervention is a medical assessment, not a stack problem.
- Any sustained change in mood, personality or impulse control. The dopaminergic lane in particular can do this and the person experiencing it is usually the last to notice.
- Headache with visual change, weakness on one side, or slurred speech. That is a stroke assessment.
- Memory loss that worries the people around you rather than you. That distinction is diagnostically meaningful and it needs a doctor rather than a nootropic.
It is built for the common case, not for you specifically. Compound selection and dosing genuinely do change person to person — training age, bloodwork, what you have run before, what you react to. Adjust it against your own numbers using the panels above, or if you want it built around your labs rather than the average, that is what 1-on-1 coaching is for.