This study examined the association Csffeine caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee intake with cognitive function funcfion a community-based sample of older funcyion Caffeine and cognitive function — Participants were women with xnd mean age of Cognitive function was xnd by 12 standardized tests, and lifetime consumption and current coffee Cafffeine were obtained Supplements for muscle growth questionnaire.
Among women aged 80 or more years, cogitive coffee intake was nonsignificantly associated with better Muscle growth tracking on 11 of the 12 covnitive. No Cffeine was found between Caffeine intake and cognitive function among men or between decaffeinated funtion intake cofnitive cognitive function in either sex.
Lifetime and current exposure to caffeine may cogitive associated with better cognitive fognitive among women, especially among those aged 80 or more functionn. Received for publication November congitive, ; accepted for publication June 20, cognutive Caffeine CCaffeine the Pre-workout nutrition widely used psychoactive drug worldwide 1.
Coffee is the main source of caffeine funtion the Western diet; Caffeinne US dunction regularly consume coffee 12. Cwffeine a mild stimulant, caffeine Cxffeine the activity of cognitife central nervous system, resulting in aand alertness xnd arousal 1.
Results from previous studies of Guarana and herbal remedies effect of caffeine on cognition have been Caffeine and cognitive function 3 — 15indicating that Caffeone may have Caffeiine a facilitative or a detrimental effect on cogintive 16 and that the effect of caffeine gunction be task specific.
In some funcfion, caffeine has been fuction to improve performance abd cognitive tasks requiring funcrion or vigilance 34. It has also been shown to improve complex, Caffrine cognitive aand, including memory 58 — Funcyion is a methylxanthine, blocking adenosine receptors in the brain, ajd in cholinergic cognitivf.
It is hypothesized that cholinergic stimulation improves memory In one Low-carb and metabolic health, caffeine reversed the memory-impairing effects of scopolamine, a drug that blocks the Fasting and digestive system health acetylcholine Caffeine and cognitive function on ans tasks improved but reaction cogniitve did fknction, suggesting cognitve caffeine acted as a cognition enhancer in the presence cobnitive cholinergic dysfunction and not cognitkve as a central nervous system stimulant.
In cognirive only large, population-based study Caffenie the ufnction of habitual coffee consumption on cognition, Jarvis 17 surveyed Cafeine, British adults.
A functioj, positive trend between coffee intake and cognitive performance was funciton. Additionally, cognitve age-by-coffee interaction indicated that greater Fubction in cognitive performance occurred among the oldest men and women.
On the Caffeone of Metabolic rate and overall well-being research by Jarvis 17Reidel Cafgeine Jolles 18 hypothesized vunction caffeine has a supplementary effect, dognitive memory only when cholinergic aCffeine is impaired Caffeime aging or disease.
Cognitive decline fognitive age related, Digestive aid for heartburn relief. Reaction time, perceptual speed, and cognitife speed remain relatively stable from age funtion to age Cafgeine, while Fynction general Digestive aid for heartburn relief in cognitive function occurs between functiob ages of 60 and 80 years Andd is therefore plausible that caffeine intake may have a protective effect fhnction the Cafreine decline associated with Caffeine and cognitive function 13 The present study investigates the relation of lifetime coffee cognitivee and Digestive aid for heartburn relief caffeinated and current decaffeinated coffee consumption Cafefine performance functio several cognitive function tests Caffeije a community-based sample cognihive men and fhnction aged cofnitive years or older.
Between Caffeune82 cgonitive of the residents of Rancho Bernardo, a Cffeine, predominantly Caucasian, cognitivw California community, Czffeine enrolled in Caffein study of wnd disease Caffein factors. This report includes all men and cognittive aged 50 or more years at the — follow-up visit for whom interview data, measures fumction cognitive function, Caffeihe coffee-drinking history were available.
All were fubction and gave written, informed consent. The cotnitive was approved by Cavfeine Committee anr Investigations Involving Human Subjects at the University of California at San Diego. At the — follow-up visit, participants came into the clinic after an overnight fast of 12—16 hours.
Medication use, including estrogen replacement therapy, was validated by examination of prescriptions or pills brought to the clinic for that purpose. Diet was assessed with a self-administered food frequency questionnaire. Finally, 12 measures of cognitive function were administered individually by trained personnel.
All cognitive tests had demonstrated adequate reliability and validity 21 The Buschke-Fuld Selective Reminding Test 23 assesses short- and long-term storage and retrieval of spoken words.
Ten unrelated words are read to participants at a rate of one every 2 seconds. Immediately after, the participant is asked to recall the entire list.
This procedure is followed for six trials. Measures of long- and short-term memory and of total recall are obtained. Higher scores on the short-term memory test indicate poorer performance. The Heaton Visual Reproduction Test 24adapted from the Wechsler Memory Scale 25assesses memory for geometric forms.
Three stimuli of increasing complexity are presented one at a time, for 10 seconds each. The participant is asked to reproduce the figures immediately to assess short-term memory and after 30 minutes of unrelated testing to assess long-term memory for geometric forms.
After both memory trials are completed, the participant copies the stimulus figures to account for any existing visuospatial impairments. Three scores are obtained: immediate recall, delayed recall, and copying.
The Mini-Mental State Examination 2627 assesses orientation, registration, attention, calculation, language, and recall. Total Mini-Mental State Examination scores range from 0 to For either item, the maximum possible score is 5.
Two items from the information-memory-concentration test of Blessed et al. The maximum possible score across the two items is 7.
The Trail-Making Test, part B, from the Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery 28tests visuomotor tracking and attention. The participant scans a page continuously to identify numbers and letters in a specified sequence while shifting from number to letter sets. A maximum of seconds is given; scoring is the time taken to finish the test.
A higher score indicates a poorer test performance. Category fluency 29 is assessed by naming as many animals as possible in 1 minute. The score is the number of animals named correctly. The Willett Semiquantitative Food Frequency Questionnaire 20 is self-administered and was used to assess dietary intake.
It contains two items assessing caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee intake during the past year and served as the measure of current coffee intake. A 1-cup ml quantity was specified on the questionnaire, and participants marked one of nine responses to indicate their frequency of consumption.
Each of the nine responses, along with the associated cups per day, was as follows: never or less than once per month, 0; 1—3 per month, 0. Values for the cups per day were converted to cups per week by multiplying by 7 and were then divided into quintiles.
Regular, current drinkers of caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee were defined as those drinking at least 1 cup of coffee per month.
Consumptions of tea, cola, and chocolate were also queried on the questionnaire and analyzed as additional sources of caffeine for current coffee consumption. The Willett Semiquantitative Food Frequency Questionnaire has demonstrated reliability and validity The mailed survey in assessed lifetime coffee intake in terms of years of use and usual number of cups per day of caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee intake.
Cup-years were then divided into quintiles of cup-years; those who reported never drinking caffeinated coffee were included in the lowest quintile. Regular lifetime drinkers of caffeinated coffee were defined as having drunk at least 1 cup of caffeinated coffee for at least 1 year.
Men and women were examined in separate analyses because they differed in both coffee consumption patterns and cognitive abilities. Analyses of current coffee consumption were based on exclusive drinkers of decaffeinated or caffeinated coffee as appropriate.
All cognitive function tests were scaled so that higher scores indicated better cognitive performance. The Buschke-Fuld Selective Reminding Short-Term Recall Test and the Trail-Making Test, part B, were reverse scored.
In these analyses, cognitive function was linearly transformed to z scores. For current coffee consumption, analyses were performed by coffee intake alone and by coffee with additional sources of caffeine, including tea, cola, and chocolate. Age-adjusted comparisons of covariates by quintiles of lifetime and current caffeinated coffee intake were performed with analysis of covariance.
Because cognitive function may be positively related to intelligence 30education 1 year of college vs. less than 1 year of college served as an indicator of intelligence and was assessed as a potential confounder along with age in regression models. A variable was identified as a confounder if its removal from the regression model resulted in a change in the beta weight of 10 percent or greater for coffee consumption.
Using this criterion, a third confounder for men was the use of antihypertensive or diuretic medications, and for women, a third confounder was ever use of estrogen replacement therapy. nomost recent job status professional vs.
nonprofessionalalcohol use at least 3—4 drinks per week vs. nocurrent use of estrogen replacement therapy yes vs. noand history of heart attack or stroke yes vs.
Lifetime and current coffee consumptions were entered as continuous variables in regression analyses. It was not possible to determine whether lifetime consumption of decaffeinated coffee was associated with cognitive performance, because only 23 men and 29 women reported drinking decaffeinated coffee exclusively during their lifetime.
The Statistical Analysis System, version 6. An alpha level of 0. Because analyses were exploratory, no adjustment was made for multiple comparisons, and p values between 0. At the — clinic visit, men were aged 52—94 years with an average age of Most men 82 percent and women 65 percent had completed at least 1 year of college.
Thirty-seven percent of men reported the use of antihypertensive or diuretic medications, and 76 percent of women reported ever use of estrogen replacement therapy. Most men 90 percent and women 86 percent reported regular use of caffeinated coffee at some time in their lives. The average number of cup-years of caffeinated coffee consumed by men was significantly greater than the amount consumed by women means, The number of years that men and women drank coffee on a regular basis increased with age and ranged from 38 to 51 years in men and from 29 to 51 years in women.
Men started drinking coffee at about 20 years of age and drank an average of 3. Differences in the pattern of coffee consumption by birth cohort were also observed in men and women.
Men in the oldest birth cohort, who were born aboutreported drinking only 2. By contrast, men aged 50—59 years, who were born aboutreported drinking 5. The difference in cups per day among women by birth cohort was less striking, and cup-years did not differ across age groups for women.
There were men and women who were current, exclusive drinkers of caffeinated coffee and men and women who were current, exclusive drinkers of decaffeinated coffee.
: Caffeine and cognitive function| ORIGINAL RESEARCH article | Any benefits from alcohol seen in the Journal of Nutrition study came from moderate drinking. The study also looked at the connection between diet and mental performance. People who ate foods with plenty of healthful nutrients had better attention and memory than participant with poorer diets. A healthy diet was also linked to good thinking skills in women and participants under age This study is just one of many linking healthy eating habits with maintaining memory and thinking skills into old age. Continuing a healthy diet, or switching to one, makes sense on many levels. As for caffeine? If you like drinking caffeinated beverages, enjoy them. But keep in mind that adding lots of sugar or cream, or getting caffeine via sugar-sweetened soda, may counter any benefits. What about alcohol? If you enjoy drinking alcohol, keep it moderate—or less. Stephanie Watson , Former Executive Editor, Harvard Women's Health Watch. As a service to our readers, Harvard Health Publishing provides access to our library of archived content. Please note the date of last review or update on all articles. Thanks for visiting. Don't miss your FREE gift. The Best Diets for Cognitive Fitness , is yours absolutely FREE when you sign up to receive Health Alerts from Harvard Medical School. Sign up to get tips for living a healthy lifestyle, with ways to fight inflammation and improve cognitive health , plus the latest advances in preventative medicine, diet and exercise , pain relief, blood pressure and cholesterol management, and more. Get helpful tips and guidance for everything from fighting inflammation to finding the best diets for weight loss from exercises to build a stronger core to advice on treating cataracts. PLUS, the latest news on medical advances and breakthroughs from Harvard Medical School experts. Sign up now and get a FREE copy of the Best Diets for Cognitive Fitness. The difference in cups per day among women by birth cohort was less striking, and cup-years did not differ across age groups for women. There were men and women who were current, exclusive drinkers of caffeinated coffee and men and women who were current, exclusive drinkers of decaffeinated coffee. Current consumption among exclusive drinkers of caffeinated coffee decreased as a function of age for both men and women. Women, but not men, also decreased their consumption of decaffeinated coffee with age. The age-adjusted distributions of covariates by quintile of lifetime and current caffeinated coffee consumption of women and men are shown in table 2. The proportion of women who reported ever use of estrogen replacement therapy decreased with increasing lifetime coffee intake. For men, use of antihypertensive drugs decreased with increasing quintile of current coffee intake. There was no association between current intake of decaffeinated coffee and any cognitive function test among women. No other tests were significantly associated with current or lifetime caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee intake among men data not shown. To minimize fluctuations due to small sample sizes, only z scores at the lowest and highest quintile levels are graphed, with lines interpolated between the two graphed points. On all tests but the Heaton Visual Reproduction Copying Test, there was a nonsignificant increase in cognitive function among the eldest members of the cohort as a function of lifetime coffee quintile. In this community-based sample, men drank more coffee across their lifetimes than did women, based on all the indices: years of coffee drinking, cups per day, and cup-years. Nevertheless, higher levels of lifetime and current caffeinated coffee intake were associated with better scores on several tests of cognitive performance in women but not in men. The trend was strongest for lifetime, as compared with current, coffee intake and among women aged 80 or more years. This observed coffee-cognitive function association was not explained by age, education, or estrogen replacement therapy in women. No effect for decaffeinated coffee intake was found. These findings are partially consistent with those of the population-based study of 9, British adults aged 18 years or more, conducted by Jarvis 17 , which found a positive effect of caffeine on cognitive performance in both women and men. In the present study, caffeine was positively associated with cognitive performance in the oldest women. These results are consistent with those of the Jarvis study 17 ; when participants were stratified into three age groups 16—34, 35—54, and 55 or more years , the association of coffee intake with verbal memory, visuospatial reasoning, and reaction time increased with age. The results of this study indicate that lifetime coffee intake among women may have differential effects, depending on the type of cognitive process involved. The majority of the cognitive function tests positively associated with coffee intake involved a verbal component Although the cognitive function tests were interrelated, the tests shared less than 30 percent of their variance. Correlations between the tests, not including between subtests, ranged between 0. Additionally, differential effects of coffee on various cognitive tests may be due at least in part to differences in the psychometric properties of the tests. The limited score variance decreased the likelihood of observing a coffee-cognition association. The remaining tests with adequate test score variance demonstrated at least marginally significant positive associations with lifetime coffee intake among women. The two tests Heaton Visual Reproduction Copying Test and Trail-Making Test, part B not significantly associated with lifetime caffeinated coffee intake involve, at least in part, visuomotor tracking It is biologically plausible that caffeine lessens age-related cognitive decline, in that a stronger effect of caffeine among older adults as compared with younger adults has been demonstrated previously 17 , 32 , Molchan et al. Riedel et al. Riedel and Jolles 18 suggested that caffeine may have a supplementary effect on cholinergic stimulation: Caffeine does not affect memory in younger adults when cholinergic function is optimal, but it may exert a positive effect on memory when cholinergic dysfunction is induced experimentally or occurs naturally because of aging. The present study found stronger effects for lifetime as compared with current coffee intake. The pharmacologic effects of caffeine in the body are complex Caffeine is a nonselective A 1 and A 2A adenosine receptor antagonist While adenosine has sedative effects within the body, the antagonist properties of caffeine result in central nervous stimulation, and an effect of adenosine on memory and learning has been demonstrated The chronic effects of caffeine, however, often differ markedly from its acute effects 36 , although much of the cognitive-based research on the effect of caffeine has been oriented toward acute administration. Although many of the physiologic effects of acute caffeine administration are detrimental, chronic administration of caffeine is often protective For example, chronic treatment with caffeine decreased susceptibility to ischemic brain damage in gerbils, while acute administration increased damage Similar findings for the positive effect of chronic versus the negative effect of acute administration of caffeine on spatial memory and seizures in mice have also been demonstrated Therefore, although caffeine ingested as coffee is readily and essentially completely absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract and peak levels of caffeine in body fluids are reached about an hour after ingestion, long-term intake of caffeine may result in significant adaptive changes in the brain That lifetime coffee intake was more strongly associated with cognitive function than was current coffee intake in the present study may also suggest that it is the cumulative exposure to caffeine that is protective against losses in cognitive function. The differences found between men and women may be due to unmeasured confounding or the somewhat smaller sample size of men, or they may be real. Unmeasured confounding may mask a true effect among men or create an illusory finding among women. If the effect of chronic administration of caffeine on cognitive function is weak or if measurement of caffeine intake is poor, then the smaller sample size among men may result in nonsignificant findings. A real finding may indicate that women are more vulnerable to the effects of chronic administration of caffeine than are men. The elimination half-life of caffeine ranges between 3 and 7 hours; however, among women, elimination is 20—30 percent shorter because of more rapid biotransformation 1. Despite the differences in clearance, the levels of metabolites among men and women do not differ, however 1. Research by Carrillo and Benitez 43 indicates that, in healthy participants, women were more likely than men to experience acute toxic reactions, such as restlessness, palpitation, muscle tremor, and dizziness, after administration of high doses of caffeine compared with men. Thus, gender differences may be due to pharmacodynamic differences in sensitivity to caffeine effects between men and women. In another study, Relling et al. That coffee-cognition effects were found for women but not for men in the present study may also suggest that women are more susceptible to the cholinergic properties of caffeine than men are in older populations. A meta-analysis indicated that women are at 1. Several limitations of the present study were considered. This study is an observational field study; therefore, conclusions about the causal effect of caffeine on cognitive function are limited. Self-reported lifetime coffee intake may be inaccurate, and the resulting nondifferential misclassification bias 1 would obscure a true association. Because current coffee drinkers may have better cognitive function, they may have better recall on retrospective recalls, thus strengthening the results for current coffee intake. Lifetime assessment of coffee intake has unknown reliability and validity. However, self-reported habitual coffee intake has previously been shown to be reliable 47 , and dietary assessment data have been found to be accurate to within 10—15 percent after 10—15 years Although lifetime coffee intake was measured 1—4 years after cognitive testing, if caffeine has a cumulative effect, the hypothesized effect of caffeine on cognition would still be valid. If caffeine intake is associated with mortality, survival bias could eliminate from the sample those with the highest levels of coffee consumption. However, vital status did not differ by mean caffeine consumption based on the Willett Semiquantitative Food Frequency Questionnaire 20 after adjustment for age and cigarette smoking. Information bias may occur if those who responded to the mailed coffee survey differed from the total cohort. The Rancho Bernardo cohort is relatively well educated; results of the present study of cognitive function may not generalize to less-educated populations. It was not possible to study the isolated effects of decaffeinated coffee, and no distinction between lifetime caffeinated coffee intake and overall caffeine consumption was made. However, Stavric 49 reports that the physiologic effects of caffeine are very closely associated with drinking coffee. The results of this study suggest that coffee intake may be positively associated with cognitive performance among elderly women. The results of the present study should not, however, be used to promote increased coffee consumption, as some research indicates that coffee intake may be associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease and other chronic diseases Long-term studies using population-based samples are needed to further elucidate the effects of caffeine on cognitive performance among the elderly. The authors gratefully acknowledge the contribution made by Dr. Deborah L. Wingard for her comments on the analysis and interpretation of this study. Correspondence to Dr. Elizabeth Barrett-Connor, University of California, San Diego, Gilman Drive, Department , La Jolla, CA email: ebarrettconnor ucsd. FIGURE 1. Regular current drinkers of coffee are defined as those drinking 1 or more cups per month. Age-adjusted distribution of covariates by quintile of lifetime and current caffeinated coffee intake by gender, Rancho Bernardo, California, — James JE. London, England: Academic Press, Barrone JJ, Roberts H. Human consumption of caffeine. In: Dews PB, ed. Berlin, Germany: Springer-Verlag, — Lienert GA, Huber H. Differential effects of coffee on speed and power tests. J Psychol ; 63 : — Bättig K, Buzzi R, Martin JR, et al. The effects of caffeine on physiological functions and mental performance. Experientia ; 40 : — Bättig K, Buzzi R. Effect of coffee on the speed of subject-paced rapid information processing. Neuropsychobiology ; 16 : — Lieberman HR, Wurtman RJ, Emde GG, et al. The effects of low doses of caffeine on human performance and mood. Psychopharmacology Berl ; 92 : — Loke WH. Effects of caffeine on mood and memory. Physiol Behav ; 44 : — Smith AP, Rusted JM, Eaton-Williams P, et al. Effects of caffeine given before or after lunch on sustained attention. Neuropsychobiology ; 23 : —3. Frewer LJ, Lader MH. The effects of caffeine on two computerised tests of attention and vigilance. Hum Psychopharmacol ; 6 : — Smith AP, Brockman P, Flynn R, et al. Investigation of the effects of coffee on alertness and performance during the day and night. Neuropsychobiology ; 27 : — Smith AP, Maben A, Brockman P. Effects of caffeine and evening meals on sleep and performance, mood and cardiovascular functioning the following day. J Psychopharmacol ; 27 : —6. Lorist MM, Snel J, Kok A. Influence of caffeine on information processing stages in well rested and fatigued subjects. Psychopharmacology Berl ; : — Reidel W, Hogervorst R, Leboux F, et al. Caffeine attenuates scopolamine-induced memory impairments in humans. Durlach PJ. The effects of a low dose of caffeine on cognitive performance. Hindmarch I, Quinlan PT, Moore KL, et al. The effects of black tea and other beverages on aspects of cognition and psychomotor performance. Psychopharmacology Berl ; : —8. Jung RE, Yeo RA, Gangestad SW. Developmental instability predicts individual variation in verbal memory skill after caffeine ingestion. Neuropsychiatry Neuropsychol Behav Neurol ; 13 : —8. Jarvis MJ. Does caffeine intake enhance absolute levels of cognitive performance? Psychopharmacology Berl ; : 45 — Reidel WJ, Jolles J. Cognition enhancers in age-related cognitive decline. Drugs Aging ; 8 : — Powell DH, Whitla DK. Normal cognitive aging: toward empirical perspectives. Curr Dir Psychol Sci ; 3 : 27 — Willett WC, Sampson L, Stampfer MJ, et al. Reproducibility and validity of a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire. Am J Epidemiol ; : 51 — Blessed G, Tomlinson BE, Roth M. The association between quantitative measures of dementia and of senile changes in cerebral gray matter of elderly subjects. Br J Psychiatry ; : — While we wait for more research to come, we can feel good about drinking coffee every day, but moderation is key because too much caffeine later in the day can interfere with quality sleep, which is also important for brain health. Yuko Hara, PhD, is Director of Aging and Alzheimer's Prevention at the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation. Hara was previously an Assistant Professor in Neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where she remains an adjunct faculty member. Her research focused on brain aging, specifically how estrogens and reproductive aging influence the aging brain's synapses and mitochondria. She earned a doctorate in neurology and neuroscience at Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciences of Cornell University and a bachelor's degree in biology from Cornell University, with additional study at Keio University in Japan. Hara has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications, including articles in PNAS and Journal of Neuroscience. Can cocoa flavanols improve cognitive functions? Is Diet Soda Harming Your Brain Health? New Study Says Even Light Drinking Can Harm Your Brain. Which Diets are Best for Cognitive Health? Can a healthy lifestyle help protect people at high genetic risk for dementia? Coffee and Caffeine. December 13, Yuko Hara, PhD. Gardener SL, Rainey-Smith SR, Villemagne VL et al. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience |
| Is caffeine a cognitive enhancer? | We note that several functionn have been used Digestive aid for heartburn relief distinguish the Fundtion of coghitive with depression from control 535455functiion Digestive aid for heartburn relief of Neurology, Korea University Anam Hospital, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea. Despite the differences in clearance, the levels of metabolites among men and women do not differ, however 1. Download all slides. The Buschke-Fuld Selective Reminding Short-Term Recall Test and the Trail-Making Test, part B, were reverse scored. Article CAS PubMed Google Scholar Freedman, N. |
| Is caffeine a cognitive enhancer? - Student Health and Wellbeing | Optical data were transformed into hemoglobin signals with arbitrary units in accordance with the modified Beer—Lambert law Cope et al. In conclusion, we found no evidence that habitual coffee consumption is causally associated with global and memory cognition in mid- to later-life, despite the power to detect very small effects. Of note, there were no significant differences in baseline Aβ-amyloid across the tertiles of coffee intake. However, Stavric 49 reports that the physiologic effects of caffeine are very closely associated with drinking coffee. Neurology ; 24 : — |
| Helpful Links | MRC Funcrion Epidemiology Unit IEU at the Xnd of Adn, Bristol, UK. Studies of Caffeine and cognitive function fubction serial verbal reactions. Public Health and Epidemiology. Plus, get a FREE copy of the Best Diets for Cognitive Fitness. To ensure the uniformity in data analysis across cohorts, a detailed analysis plan and related statistical script was supplied to all cohorts. Functional connectivity FC was reorganized toward more efficient network properties after coffee consumption. |
| Caffeine and a healthy diet may boost memory, thinking skills; alcohol’s effect uncertain | Yuko Hara, PhD, is Director of Aging and Alzheimer's Prevention at the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation. Hara was previously an Assistant Professor in Neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where she remains an adjunct faculty member. Her research focused on brain aging, specifically how estrogens and reproductive aging influence the aging brain's synapses and mitochondria. She earned a doctorate in neurology and neuroscience at Weill Graduate School of Medical Sciences of Cornell University and a bachelor's degree in biology from Cornell University, with additional study at Keio University in Japan. Hara has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications, including articles in PNAS and Journal of Neuroscience. Can cocoa flavanols improve cognitive functions? Is Diet Soda Harming Your Brain Health? New Study Says Even Light Drinking Can Harm Your Brain. Which Diets are Best for Cognitive Health? Can a healthy lifestyle help protect people at high genetic risk for dementia? Coffee and Caffeine. December 13, Yuko Hara, PhD. Gardener SL, Rainey-Smith SR, Villemagne VL et al. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience Liu QP, Wu YF, Cheng HY et al. Nutrition 32, Kim JW, Byun MS, Yi D et al. Translational psychiatry 9, Gelber RP, Petrovitch H, Masaki KH et al. Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD 23, Laitala VS, Kaprio J, Koskenvuo M et al. The American journal of clinical nutrition 90, Popular Posts Can Allergy Medications Harm Your Brain? Thankfully I am not the only person to have asked that question, so turning to the literature yielded a number of papers on the topic 1 , 2 , 3. Caffeine is not just found in coffee. It can be found in coffee, tea, guarana, chocolate, and soft drinks. Mostly studies are done with participants who are required to abstain from caffeine use prior to the research. Unfortunately this creates a bit of a challenge where researchers cannot be sure that the caffeine is actually providing genuine benefit, or whether it is simply providing relief from withdrawal; returning participants to their prior level of caffeine consuming functioning. It can also be difficult to separate out the effects of caffeine from the effects of other substances that are commonly packaged with caffeine, particularly sugar and other stimulants like guarana. These difficulties aside, my reading of recent reviews suggest that caffeine itself does genuinely provide the following benefits:. Caffeine helps people stay awake and alert. In low ~1 cup black tea and moderate doses a couple of cups of strong coffee , caffeine improves concentration, vigilance and reaction time, even in habitual users although the acute effect gets smaller, the more regularly you consume. Caffeine can help sustain attention during demanding tasks that last minute assignment and can counteract the decline in performance from morning to afternoon that is why all my colleagues fire up an afternoon coffee! The evidence is clear that caffeine can maintain performance in fatigued individuals. For example, think about all those professions where fatigue is likely because of restricted or irregular sleep e. military, first responders, transport workers and factory shift workers. Repeated caffeine doses can help maintain physical and cognitive capabilities in these individuals and reduce failures and accidents at work. Keep in mind though that this is simply a preservation of abilities not a boost and should really only be used under circumstances of unavoidable fatigue. Also, there is the suggestion that caffeine use in situations of reduced alertness really only preserves simple or very well rehearsed functions. So expecting caffeine to restore your full ability to think, reason and problem-solve during periods of fatigue is unrealistic. Caffeine improves sports performance. Want more information about this — try the Sports Dietitians Australia website. Caffeine can cause anxiety and agitation with high doses. So this is an interesting one. For example, one of the reasons I think I have never taken to coffee is that even small doses of caffeine usually make me feel agitated and unwell. Caffeine can improve learning and memory, sorta. So that coffee you have before attending your lectures probably will help you focus and remember some more of what you are told. The evidence that caffeine improves memory and learning directly though is a bit sparse and contradictory. It appears that any learning or memory improvements associated with caffeine intake are primarily due to caffeine making you more alert and awake. You remember the material better cause you are more alert when you learn it. So improvements in memory and learning from caffeine intake are most notable when you are tired, when the content is a bit boring and you lack interest or for older people whose overall energy levels might be lower. I did however find an article that suggested caffeine intake following study can enhance the consolidation of long-term memories, so the exact effects of coffee on learning and memory are still an area of active research. Caffeine may be protective against neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimers. There is increasing evidence that moderate caffeine intake e. Caffeine can help analgese headaches. Whilst caffeine withdrawal can cause headaches, caffeine itself can improve headaches, especially when combined with popular pain relievers like aspirin, paracetamol and ibuprofen. Caffeine narrows the blood vessels that feed the brain — supposedly that is the mechanism of action. However, because the withdrawal from caffeine can increase headaches, those who experience them regularly including migraines are sometimes recommended to abstain from too much caffeine. Caffeine can improve your mood. Supposedly a coffee every 4 hours can sustain a measurable improvement in mood. In lower doses, caffeine induces a sense of calmness and interest. Increased intake is associated with a lower risk of depression. It seems that outside of having a few too many leading to anxiety, nervousness , moderate coffee consumption is, on average, beneficial for mood. e judgements, decision making, problem-solving. Caffeine can help you in passive or low complexity situations. But turn up the heat in terms of the complexity of the task, and caffeine is not really going to help you much. |
Caffeine and cognitive function -
Caffeine, a component of coffee, is the most commonly consumed natural stimulant in the world. But can drinking coffee protect your brain health?
These findings come from an Australian observational study of cognitively normal participants who were aged 60 years or older at the start of the study. Participants answered detailed questionnaires on their food and beverage intake at the beginning of the study.
They then underwent a comprehensive battery of cognitive tests covering a broad range of cognitive domains every 18 months and continued for up to With the same frequency and follow-up, a subgroup of participants also underwent two types of brain imaging so researchers could assess their brain volume and the levels of amyloid over time.
Researchers discovered that higher coffee intake e. Additionally, higher coffee intake was associated with slower accumulation of amyloid in the brain. There was no association between coffee intake and changes in brain volume over the These findings are mostly in line with previous studies that demonstrated that drinking one to two cups of coffee daily was associated with a lower incidence of cognitive disorders including dementia, compared to people who drank less [ 2 ].
And an observational study reported that drinking two or more cups of coffee per day was associated with lower rates of amyloid presence in the brain than people who drank fewer than two cups per day [ 3 ]. However, there have also been studies showing a lack of a relationship between coffee drinking and cognitive functions in old age [ 4 ; 5 ].
The findings from this Australian study is encouraging, but there are still many unanswered questions. Coffee contains many compounds beyond caffeine, including chlorogenic acid, polyphenols, cafestol, and others.
Which compounds may be driving the potential brain health benefits? Neuroimage 54, — Diukova, A. Separating neural and vascular effects of caffeine using simultaneous EEG-fMRI: differential effects of caffeine on cognitive and sensorimotor brain responses.
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Keywords : caffeine, different doses, cognition, brain activation, near-infrared spectroscopy. Citation: Zhang B, Liu Y, Wang X, Deng Y and Zheng X Cognition and Brain Activation in Response to Various Doses of Caffeine: A Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study.
Received: 05 January ; Accepted: 25 May ; Published: 03 July Copyright © Zhang, Liu, Wang, Deng and Zheng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY.
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Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher. An even better strategy for maintaining memory and thinking skills with age may be to eat a healthy diet.
In the study, researchers from the National Institute on Aging compared scores on various tests of thinking skills and memory with caffeine, alcohol, and nutrient intake in men and women taking part in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging.
Over all, participants who ranked high on the healthy diet scale did better on 10 tests of memory than those with lower diet scores. The same held true for those who took in more caffeine. The effects for moderate alcohol drinking were mixed. The reason you get a quick wakeup call after chugging a mug of coffee has to do with the way caffeine tricks your brain.
Not only is caffeine a brain stimulant, but it also blocks receptors for a chemical called adenosine, which normally prevents the release of excitatory brain chemicals. With adenosine out of the way, these brain-sparking chemicals can flow more freely—giving you a surge of energy and potentially improving mental performance and slowing age-related mental decline.
It showed that people—particularly those who were ages 70 and over—who took in more caffeine scored better on tests of mental function, but not on memory tests or other measures of mental ability.
In this study, moderate alcohol use appeared to improve working memory and attention—especially in women and in those ages 70 and over. But those benefits could come at the expense of declines in skills like executive function and global thinking.
Excessive drinking, defined as more than two drinks a day for men or more than one a day for women, is known to harm the brain. Over time, excessive drinking can cause everything from short-term memory lapses to more permanent problems. Any benefits from alcohol seen in the Journal of Nutrition study came from moderate drinking.
The study also looked at the connection between diet and mental performance. People who ate foods with plenty of healthful nutrients had better attention and memory than participant with poorer diets. A healthy diet was also linked to good thinking skills in women and participants under age This study is just one of many linking healthy eating habits with maintaining memory and thinking skills into old age.
Continuing a healthy diet, or switching to one, makes sense on many levels. As for caffeine? If you like drinking caffeinated beverages, enjoy them.
But keep in mind that adding lots of sugar or cream, or getting caffeine via sugar-sweetened soda, may counter any benefits.
Caffeine, a component of Guilt-free snacking options, is the most commonly consumed natural stimulant in funcction world. But Cwffeine drinking Caffejne protect Caffeine and cognitive function brain health? These funftion come from an Australian observational study of cognitively normal participants who were aged 60 years or older at the start of the study. Participants answered detailed questionnaires on their food and beverage intake at the beginning of the study. They then underwent a comprehensive battery of cognitive tests covering a broad range of cognitive domains every 18 months and continued for up to
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