For many people, the day doesn't start until their coffee mug is empty. Coffee is often thought to make you feel more alert, so people drink it to wake themselves up and improve their efficiency. Portuguese scientists studied coffee-drinkers to understand whether that wakefulness effect is dependent on the properties of caffeine, or whether it's about the experience of drinking coffee.
"There is a common expectation that coffee increases alertness and psychomotor functioning," said Prof Nuno Sousa of the University of Minho, corresponding author of the study in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience and Field Chief Editor of the journal. "When you get to understand better the mechanisms underlying a biological phenomenon, you open pathways for exploring the factors that may modulate it and even the potential benefits of that mechanism."
[...] Because of the known neurochemical effects of drinking coffee, the scientists expected that the functional MRI scans would show that the people who drank coffee had higher integration of networks that are linked to the prefrontal cortex, associated with executive memory, and the default mode network, involved in introspection and self-reflection processes. They found that the connectivity of the default mode network was decreased both after drinking coffee and after taking caffeine, which indicates that consuming either caffeine or coffee made people more prepared to move from resting to working on tasks.
However, drinking coffee also increased the connectivity in the higher visual network and the right executive control network – parts of the brain which are involved in working memory, cognitive control, and goal-directed behavior. This didn't happen when participants only took caffeine. In other words, if you want to feel not just alert but ready to go, caffeine alone won't do – you need to experience that cup of coffee.
"Acute coffee consumption decreased the functional connectivity between brain regions of the default mode network, a network that is associated with self-referential processes when participants are at rest," said Dr Maria Picó-Pérez of Jaume I University, first author. [...] In simple words, the subjects were more ready for action and alert to external stimuli after having coffee."
"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," added Picó-Pérez. "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."
The authors pointed out that it is possible that the experience of drinking coffee without caffeine could cause these benefits: this study could not differentiate the effects of the experience alone from the experience combined with the caffeine. There is also a hypothesis that the benefits coffee-drinkers claim could be due to the relief of withdrawal symptoms, which this study did not test.
Journal Reference:
Maria Picó-Pérez1, Ricardo Magalhães, Madalena Esteves, et al., Coffee consumption decreases the connectivity of the posterior Default Mode Network (DMN) at rest, Front. Behav. Neurosci., 28 June 2023 Volume 17 - 2023 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1176382
(Score: 4, Funny) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Sunday September 10 2023, @07:37AM
That first coffee or that first cigarette... If you don't do it, something's missing. Not because you don't get the chemicals, but because you broke your habit. Habits are powerful: if something's amiss in your routine, your day immediately starts feeling like it's unfolding the wrong way.
Although I will say this: coffee will not make me alert in the morning (I just have to wait 15 minutes to be fully awake for that). But it will kickstart the machinery in my guts so that I'll want to take a dump in time before I have to get dressed and catch the bus to work. And back when I smoked, the first cigarette of the day had the same effect, only even quicker.
So nevermind being more alert: if I don't have my coffee in the morning, it means I either have to wake up earlier, of face a one-hour commute yoyoing a turd and trying not to shit myself on the bus. And THAT will rise my alertness level real good!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by cykros on Sunday September 10 2023, @09:18AM (2 children)
Just like nicotine's addictiveness is potentiated by the harmala alkaloids in tobacco, it sounds like there's more going on than just caffeine in that coffee. I'd not be so quick to jump to placebo as an explanation.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by aafcac on Sunday September 10 2023, @12:03PM
Yes, also keep in mind that if you drink coffee every day, that the effect wears off over time. It takes time for the caffeine to exit the brain and let things go back to normal. Also, it's been known for quite a while that coffee doesn't generally wake people up, it makes them less sleepy. So, coffee is best drank a few hours after you wake up. If you need to wake up, then a drink such as green tea is a better option as it doesn't just remove the sleepiness, the boost to the metabolic rate you get from it helps actually wake you up.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday September 12 2023, @01:43PM
You beat me to it. If they wanted to establish that it was a placebo rather than other chemicals in the coffee, then they should have compared drinking coffee to, e.g., consuming a comparable amount of dehydrated coffee pills.
Heck, that's basically what instant coffee is, right? So they could have done the experiment properly with no more effort than filling some empty gel-caps with the same dosage as made into a cup of coffee.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bradley13 on Sunday September 10 2023, @09:33AM
I've never noticed any "alertness" effect from caffeine. I still enjoy my morning coffee - it's just part of the ritual to start the day. Drink too much late at night, and I can't fall asleep, but being a sleepy zombie is not being alert.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by turgid on Sunday September 10 2023, @10:13AM
I drink mostly decaf these days but still have one or two mugs of the real stuff in the morning. In years gone by I have got myself into some health problems with too much caffeine. I used to think I was moderating my caffeine intake when I was only having five mugs of full-strength stuff per day. That led to all sorts of headaches, muscular spasms and increased alcohol intake at the other end of the day. I also swore loudly at various managers across the office. That bit felt good. The rest, not so much.
At one place I worked, there was a gym on site which I used to use. There were various people employed as gym supervisors who could advise on various exercise regimes and also about diet. There was one from Brazil who seemed to know a lot about coffee. She said coming off coffee takes several days and you will experience many headaches. We drink far too much of the stuff.
Since then, my intake has been up and down. It creeps up gradually in response to various external stresses. When I start drinking three in a day I stop and think about why and how to cut it down.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Sunday September 10 2023, @02:22PM (1 child)
I can't drink (Folgers) any coffee anymore: (got sick of seeing Waynes Gretzky's face on TV): it creates way too much acid in my stomach and affects me all day in a horrible way.
So, i drink Monster. I used to drink 2-4 of the normal sized cans a day, then i switched to the small cans: i drink 2-4 of those now; so... better.
But i do need that kick and it could partially be just habit, as Rosco said. Habit plus addiction... Janes' addiction.
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--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 10 2023, @03:11PM
You can find some low acid coffee brands, but it seems very expensive. Cold brew is another option.
I recommend deconstructing The Monster. Buy taurine powder [soylentnews.org] and caffeine pills.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday September 10 2023, @08:17PM
This is too complicated; it'll make more sense after I brew my morning tea.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 10 2023, @08:56PM (1 child)
Caffeine has never helped me wake up, but it is useful for avoiding sleep. I find Vitamin B far more useful in the mornings. If I'm in a rush, a pill will do, but usually I eat some eggs.
(Score: 2) by ChrisMaple on Monday September 11 2023, @07:04PM
Which B vitamin? My recollection is that B6 and B12 are neuro-active, the others not so much.
(Score: 2) by SomeRandomGeek on Monday September 11 2023, @03:22PM (1 child)
Some of the important effects of coffee are related to chemicals other than caffeine. For example, coffee has polyphenols, which offer a variety of health benefits. Personally, I drink a lot of decaf coffee. I am very skeptical that the effects of coffee can be attributed to either caffeine or a placebo.
(Score: 2) by tekk on Monday September 11 2023, @08:01PM
Not to mention that coffee, if you're not loading it up with sugar and creamer, is often a strong, stimulating, flavor. Not to mention that if you *are* dumping a bunch of sugar in there you get the physiological effects of that too.