A group of Swiss scientists from the University of Basel Psychiatric Hospital and the University of Zurich studied the effects of regular caffeine consumption on cognitive abilities. To work published In the scientific journal Scientific Reports.
Although people often drink coffee to increase their energy levels or focus, observations have shown that this popular beverage can have the opposite effect in the long run.
Researchers conducted an experiment involving twenty healthy men. The researchers recruited only male volunteers to minimize variability in caffeine metabolism due to hormonal fluctuations in women.
During testing, all participants completed three tasks: drinking moderate doses of caffeine for 10 days, substituting caffeine for a placebo for the same period of time, and giving up caffeine for 36 hours after drinking for nine days. The order of actions was chosen randomly for each subject. People were given caffeine in its pure form, not dissolved in drinks.
The researchers assessed the volunteers’ cognitive abilities using tests of concentration, psychomotor skills, and working memory function, which is the ability to temporarily store and quickly process information. Both error rates and reaction times were measured during the tasks to evaluate performance. Experts also analyzed the brain activity of the trial participants using MRI.
According to the findings, moderate daily caffeine consumption may actually compromise working memory, causing people to make more mistakes and increase reaction times. Functional MRI analysis also showed that under the influence of caffeine, neural activity in the brain did not coincide with relevant cognitive functions.
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