Dec 30, 2021 10:00:00

What are the 'five effects' of coffee on the brain, such as 'memory' and 'exercise ability' that are not limited to alarm clocks?

Many people feel that drinking coffee refreshes their brains and improves their work. In fact,

caffeine in coffee is a type of psychostimulant that increases the activity of the central nervous system and has various effects on the brain. So, science news site Inverse explains ' five effects of coffee on the brain.'

Five reasons drinking coffee improves brain power
https://www.inverse.com/mind-body/5-ways-drinking-coffee-can-benefit-brain-health

◆ 1: Short-term memory
A 2021 paper published in the journal Current Biology shows the results of experiments in which researchers give caffeine to honeybees. To investigate the relationship between caffeine intake and short-term memory of honeybees, the research team divided the bees into two groups to memorize the scent of strawberry flowers and, if successful, gave them a sugar solution. In one of these groups, caffeine was mixed with sugar water.

After training, bees fed sugar water with caffeine were more capable of finding real strawberry flowers than the other group, and caffeine had a positive effect on short-term memory. It has been shown to exert. Sarah Arnold of the University of Greenwich, the lead author of the paper, said, 'When you give caffeine to bees, they don't fly in a circle, but they are more motivated and efficient. It looks like. '

◆ 2: Motor learning ability
Experiments conducted by Arnold et al. Confirmed that caffeine affects not only short-term memory of honeybees but also athletic performance. Bees given caffeinated sugar water were said to move from flower to flower faster than the other group. From this result, the research team believes that caffeine boosts athletic performance .

◆ 3: Awakening
People are less likely to feel mental fatigue if they take caffeine (100 mg), which is equivalent to a cup of coffee (about 160 ml) a day. A 2018

study conducted a randomized clinical trial using caffeine-containing coffee and caffeine-less decaffeinated coffee to examine the effect of placebo on information processing ability and mental arousal. rice field. Experiments have shown that people who drank coffee containing caffeine had higher levels of arousal and less mental fatigue than those who drank decaffeinated coffee.

◆ 4: Mood
A 2010 (PDF file) study noted that drinking coffee and consuming low doses of caffeine may increase interest in the task and promote calm, especially late in the morning. Drinking coffee during the hours may be effective. It has also been pointed out that drinking coffee may improve seasonal affective disorder (winter depression), which makes you feel depressed in the fall and winter.

◆ 5: Brain age

A 2015 study involving more than 1,400 subjects showed that the habit of drinking one or two cups of coffee a day may stop cognitive decline in the brain due to aging. In 2017, research results have also been reported that caffeine increases the production of an enzyme called 'NMNAT2' that prevents dementia.