A Caffeine Kickstart: Is Your Morning Boost Just A Trick of the Mind?
Many people cannot truly start their day until they have finished their morning cup of coffee. Often, coffee is consumed to enhance alertness and productivity.
A team of Portuguese researchers delved into the connection between the alertness coffee drinkers feel and the intrinsic characteristics of caffeine, or if it’s related to the mere act of consuming coffee.
Coffee is generally perceived to boost “alertness and psychomotor functioning,” according to the corresponding author Prof. Nuno Sousa.
The findings of the study were published in the journal Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience.
“When you get to understand better the mechanisms underlying a biological phenomenon,” adds the author, “you open pathways for exploring the factors that may modulate it and even the potential benefits of that mechanism.”
Kickstarting your day with Caffeine
The research team gathered individuals who consumed at least one cup of coffee daily. These participants were instructed to avoid any food or drinks containing caffeine for a minimum of three hours prior to the study.
After collecting sociodemographic data through interviews, the researchers conducted two short functional MRI scans: one before and another 30 minutes after the participants either drank caffeine or a standard cup of coffee. During the functional MRI scans, participants were told to unwind and let their thoughts roam freely.
The team postulated that, given the established neurochemical impacts of coffee consumption, the functional MRI scans would reveal enhanced interconnections within networks linked to the prefrontal cortex – which is connected to executive memory – and the default mode network, which is implicated in contemplation and self-examination.
What they discovered was that the interconnectivity within the default mode network diminished after consuming either coffee or caffeine. This suggests that the intake of caffeine or coffee readies individuals to transition from a state of rest to engaging in tasks.
Rising with a Ready Mind
Interestingly, consuming coffee also elevated the interconnectedness in the superior visual network and the right executive control network – brain regions that play a role in working memory, cognitive regulation, and purpose-driven conduct. This enhancement was not observed when the participants consumed caffeine alone. Essentially, to not just be awake but also geared up for action, merely consuming caffeine is not enough – one must savor the entire coffee experience.
Immediately after drinking coffee, they noticed a decrease in the functional connectivity among brain regions within the default mode network, which is linked to self-focused thinking when individuals are in a restful state, according to lead author Dr. Maria Picó-Pérez.
Additionally, there was diminished connectivity between the sensorimotor networks and the prefrontal cortex, but an increase in connectivity in the higher visual and right executive control networks. Simply put, after drinking coffee, the participants were more primed for activity and attuned to external stimuli.
Picó-Pérez further adds, “Taking into account that some of the effects that we found were reproduced by caffeine, we could expect other caffeinated drinks to share some of the effects. However, others were specific for coffee drinking, driven by factors such as the particular smell and taste of the drink, or the psychological expectation associated with consuming that drink.”
They highlighted the possibility that the act of consuming coffee, even without caffeine, could contribute to these benefits. This particular study couldn’t segregate the influence of the experience itself from the combination of the experience with caffeine. Additionally, there’s speculation that the positive effects professed by coffee drinkers may stem from alleviating withdrawal symptoms, a facet not evaluated in this study.
It’s important to note that changes in brain connectivity were analyzed during a restful state. Any correlation with psychological and cognitive functions is inferred based on the known roles of the affected brain regions, but direct testing was not conducted, according to Sousa.
“Moreover, there could be individual differences in the metabolism of caffeine among participants that would be interesting to explore in the future.”
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