Pramiracetam (N-[2-[bis(1-methylethyl)amino]ethyl]-2-oxo-1-pyrrolidineacetamide, investigational code CI-879) is a pyrrolidinone acetamide from the racetam family. It emerged from a 1984 medicinal chemistry series of N-[(dialkylamino)alkyl]-2-oxo-1-pyrrolidineacetamides that were screened for reversal of electroconvulsive shock-induced amnesia in mice; the bis(1-methylethyl)aminoethyl derivative was selected for further evaluation. Most of the published work dates from the 1980s and 1990s and comes from rodent models. Studies have examined hippocampal high-affinity choline uptake, spatial learning in the radial arm maze, choline transport across the blood-brain barrier, cortical nitric oxide synthase activity and responses to hypobaric hypoxia. A 2010 review groups pramiracetam with piracetam, oxiracetam, aniracetam and phenylpiracetam and notes that the modes of action of piracetam-like compounds remain poorly understood.