Coffee is one of the most consumed beverages worldwide and although many choose it for its flavor, it is also a resource to keep us alert or finish waking up when we get out of bed. Its stimulant effects are attributed to caffeine, but interestingly, a study has just revealed that caffeine only partially reproduces the effects of drinking a cup of coffee, and that it only activates areas of the brain that make us feel more alert, but not the areas disorders that affect working memory and goal-directed behavior.
The authors of the work are scientists from the University of Minho (Portugal) and the Jaume I University (Spain) who studied coffee drinkers to find out if the stimulation it produces depends on the properties of caffeine, or is it the experience of having a cup of coffee is responsible for that ‘awakening’ effect.
“There is a common expectation that coffee increases alertness and psychomotor functioning,” said Professor Nuno Sousa of the University of Minho, author of the study published in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience and chief field editor of the journal. “When you come to better understand the mechanisms underlying a biological phenomenon, you open avenues to explore the factors that can modulate it, and even the potential benefits of that mechanism.”
The psychological effect associated with having a cup of coffee
The researchers selected people who drank a minimum of one cup of coffee a day and asked them to refrain from caffeinated foods or beverages for at least three hours prior to the study. They interviewed the participants to collect sociodemographic data and then performed two brief fMRI scans: one before and one 30 minutes after ingesting caffeine or drinking a standard cup of coffee. During the fMRI tests, the participants were asked to relax and let their minds wander.
“Some of the effects we found were specific to drinking coffee, driven by factors such as the particular smell and taste of the beverage, or the psychological expectation associated with consuming that beverage.”
Due to the known neurochemical effects of coffee consumption, the scientists hoped that the MRI would show that people who drank coffee had greater integration of networks linked to the prefrontal cortex of the brain, associated with executive memory and the default mode network. that intervene in processes of introspection and self-reflection. They found that default mode network connectivity decreased both after drinking coffee and after drinking caffeine, indicating that consuming caffeine or coffee made people more prepared to transition from break to work on tasks.
However, they found that drinking coffee also increased connectivity in the higher visual network and the right executive control network, areas of the brain involved in working memory, cognitive control, and goal-directed behavior, something that did not occur when the participants drank caffeine only. This means that if, in addition to feeling alert, we want to feel ready to start working, caffeine alone is not enough: we need to experience that cup of coffee.
“Acute coffee consumption decreased functional connectivity between brain regions of the default mode network, a network that is associated with self-referential processes when participants are at rest,” explained Dr. María Picó-Pérez from Jaume University. I, first author. “Functional connectivity also decreased between somatosensory/motor networks and the prefrontal cortex, whereas connectivity in the higher visual network and right executive control regions increased after drinking coffee. In simple words, the subjects were more ready for action and alert to external stimuli after drinking coffee.
“Taking into account that some of the effects we found were reproduced by caffeine, we might expect other caffeinated beverages to share some of the effects,” adds Picó-Pérez. “However, others were specific to drinking coffee, driven by factors such as the beverage’s particular smell and taste, or the psychological expectation associated with consuming that beverage.”
In fact, the authors even suggest that the experience of drinking coffee without caffeine might cause these benefits, although this study was unable to differentiate the effects of the experience alone from the experience combined with caffeine. It is also hypothesized that the benefits reported by coffee drinkers might be due to relief of withdrawal symptoms, which this study did not test.
“Changes in connectivity were studied during a resting state sequence. Any association with psychological and cognitive processes is interpreted based on the common function attributed to the regions and networks found, but it was not tested directly,” Sousa warned. “In addition, there could be individual differences in caffeine metabolism between the participants that would be interesting to explore in the future,” concludes the researcher.
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