Nervous system drugs play an important role in the drug research and development, and the cognition related drug become the urgent needs of social development. However, drugs which can regulate cognitive function are seriously inadequate in clinical supply, and faced frustration in research and development process. In this paper, a brief overview of the two types of cognition related drugs (drugs affecting normal cognitive function and improving cognitive dysfunction) were discussed based on the current research status of cognitive pharmacology. The current research and development of new cognition related drugs focuses on regulating neurotransmitters, targeting Aβ and Tau proteins, neuroprotection and vascularization, and still requires new research methods and ideas. In this article, we summed up the research strategies based on the clinical and development of cognition related drugs, especially for the Alzheimer's disease, then we put forward the task and challenge of cognitive pharmacology development. We aimed at providing new ideas for researchers to promote the development of cognitive drugs.