Caffeine helps people remember
fine distinctions between similar things at least up to 24 hours after
it is consumed, new research shows.I keep up with some scientific journals and when a study like this one comes along, it's got my attention being a hyper-Dunkin' Donuts coffee drinker (Tom is a hyper-tea drinker). - Rob
VIDEO SOURCE: http://youtu.be/quvKBJKoRgo
A day later, caffeine stimulates memory
VIDEO SOURCE: http://youtu.be/quvKBJKoRgo
A day later, caffeine stimulates memory
Caffeine helps people remember
fine distinctions between similar things at least up to 24 hours after
it is consumed, new research shows.
“We’ve always known that caffeine has cognitive-enhancing effects,
but its particular effects on strengthening memories and making them
resistant to forgetting has never been examined in detail in humans,”
says Michael Yassa, assistant professor of psychological and brain
sciences at Johns Hopkins University.The Yassa team’s paper – published January 12, 2014 in the journal Nature Neuroscience – shows “for the first time a specific effect of caffeine on reducing forgetting over 24 hours,” he says.
Yassa and colleagues, led by undergraduate Daniel Borota, gave research participants a series of images to study, and five minutes later gave them either a 200-milligram caffeine tablet or a placebo. The subjects—none of whom regularly ate or drank caffeinated products—provided saliva samples before taking their tablets to measure their caffeine levels. Saliva was taken again one, three, and 24 hours later.
The next day, the caffeine group and controls were tested on their ability to remember the images from the previous day. Some of the visuals were the same, some were new and some were similar to but not the same as those the subjects had studied. More members of the caffeine group were able to correctly identify new images as “similar” to previously viewed images versus erroneously citing them as the same.
The brain’s ability to recognize the difference between two similar but not identical items reflects a deeper level of memory retention, the researchers say.
