(FORTUNE Magazine) – Even as scientists race to develop drugs that combat the devastating memory loss of Alzheimer's disease, they are closing in on fixes for garden-variety "senior moments." Pharmaceutical maker Merck is at the forefront. FORTUNE writer John Simons recently quizzed Dennis Choi, the company's chief of neuroscience research, on what to expect.

Can drugs really fix a memory that isn't as sharp as it once was?

Memory functions deteriorate gradually with age, and we see in animals that age-related disturbance is amenable to pharmacotherapy. We can give any number of drugs that we're working on to animals and produce sometimes marked increases in their ability to retain information. Our scientists have successfully fashioned compounds, for instance, that increase a rat's ability to remember how to navigate a water maze over the course of many days.

How will memory-enhancing drugs work?

There are several approaches. Classes of drugs called ampakind are designed to enhance the function of glutamate receptors, which are neurotransmitters in the central nervous system that play a central role in learning and memory. And we're looking into ways of manipulating the GABA neurotransmitter system. [GABA is a chemical released by the brain that helps carry signals within the central nervous system.] Reducing activity of the brain's GABA transmitters increases alertness and stimulates areas of the brain central to memory.

Where do you go from here?

Set up animal model systems. While I'm generally a pessimist in terms of how difficult modeling human brain function is at the animal level--the human brain is very different from mice and rat brains--in memory I'm more of an optimist. All animals have to learn about their environment. You have to know where the food is.

How long before I can get a prescription for a memory-loss drug?

The likelihood that we will have some treatment in five to ten years is pretty high.

Is it possible for drugs not only to restore memory that has deteriorated but also to make my memory sharper than it has ever been?

Yes. But one can at least conceptualize a downside to having memory that is too good. Would you really want to remember everything that's ever happened to you with crystal clarity? Psychologists and psychiatrists believe that there is a benefit to the fading of memory over time. Profound changes in normal human memory might not be a good thing.

Will we soon see drugs that make us smarter too?

Most cognition-drug development programs now are directed at enhancing memory, and intelligence in large part is nonoverlapping with memory. But it is quite conceivable, even plausible, that manipulations could be found that affect other facets of intelligence, including actual processing ability.