Put the Cup Down: Is the buzz from your morning coffee not real?

Your morning cup of coffee might not be as magical as it seems to you. A new research has found that the feeling of alertness people have after sipping the caffeinated beverage could just be a placebo effect. The paper published in the journal Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience on 28 June shows that the notion of being wide awake felt by morning coffee drinkers might have more to do with the experience of drinking coffee than the caffeine in it, reported Fortune magazine. “There is a common expectation that coffee increases alertness and psychomotor functioning. 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,” co-author of the study and professor Nuno Sousa of the University of Minho in Portugal said in a statement, as per news agency PTI. Let’s take a closer look at the research. How was the study conducted? Scientists selected volunteers who drank at least one cup of coffee every day. These participants were asked to refrain from eating or drinking caffeinated beverages for at least three hours. They were then subjected to two functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans – one three hours before consuming any caffeine and the other 30 minutes after having either coffee or hot water with the same quantity of caffeine. According to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the average 8-oz cup of coffee has 80 to 100 milligrams of caffeine. During the MRI scans, volunteers were urged to relax and let their minds wander. ALSO READ: Not a Mix-Up: Why people are adding salt to their coffee instead of sugar Findings of the study It is widely known that caffeine acts as a central nervous system stimulant. Thus, on this basis, the authors believed the brain scans after drinking caffeinated drinks, including coffee, will show a higher integration of the networks associated with the prefrontal cortex – linked to executive memory – and the default mode network (DMN), which is connected to introspection and self-reflection processes, noted Newsweek. As expected, the authors found that connectivity of the default mode network reduced after drinking coffee or consuming caffeine, indicating that taking any form of caffeine makes people more active and alert. [caption id=“attachment_12811352” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] The feeling of alertness people experience after sipping coffee could just be a placebo. Pixabay (Representational Image)[/caption] But here’s how the placebo effect comes into the picture. Coffee drinkers exhibited enhanced connectivity in the higher visual network and the right executive control network. This was not the case with those who only took caffeine. “This suggests that these parts of the brain, involved in working memory, cognitive control, and goal-directed behaviour, require the experience of drinking coffee, rather than just caffeine,” explained Fortune magazine. ALSO READ: Sweet Killer? What is Aspartame, the sweetener set to be declared as a possible cancer agent? “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. The functional connectivity was also decreased between the somatosensory/motor networks and the prefrontal cortex, while the connectivity in regions of the higher visual and the right executive control network was increased after drinking coffee,” said Dr Maria Pico-Perez, the study’s lead author from Jaume I University in Valencia, as per StudyFinds.

“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. 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,” Dr Pico-Perez added. [caption id=“attachment_12811362” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Coffee drinkers exhibited enhanced connectivity in the higher visual network and the right executive control network, says the study. Pixabay (Representational Image)[/caption] The authors acknowledged the limitations of their study, saying they did not test if non-caffeinated coffee provides the same results as caffeinated coffee. Another reason for the psychological effect that coffee drinkers claim to experience might be because of the relief of withdrawal symptoms, researchers added. This was also not taken into account while conducting the study. With inputs from Reuters Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.