Now that studying season is in full affect with finals week approaching, I thought it is appropriate to write a blog on something that has to do with studying. I see students constantly walking around Starbucks energy drinks and other drinks that contain a large amount of caffeine. I wonder if these drinks have a good or bad affect on students bodies, and whether it can actually help them study. There are many different studies done on this topic, but the most eye opening one to me was done at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
This double-blind trial looked at how caffeine affects the memory section of the brain. Participants in this study were given either a 200 milligram caffeine pull of a pill that had no affect on the body 5 minutes after seeing 20 pictures. They tested the participants the next day to see how their memories reacted to the images. The way they did this was they would ask the participants if they had seen the image they were showing them the day before. They mixed in some images that they had seen and some that the volunteers had never seen. It should also be said that all of the participants are not regular users of caffeine products. The researchers found that those who took the pill containing caffeine had a significantly better memory than those who had not been given this pill. They also found that those who were not given the pill were much more likely to be tricked into thinking that images that looked similar to the ones from the previous day were actually those that they were shown. Of course this study could be do to chance, but the researchers say that the results are too significant to only be due to chance. The lead researcher of the project, Dr. Michael Yassa said, “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.”
Another study done proves that caffeine actually improves your logical thinking over an extended period of time. This new study was done the same way as the one above in which participants were given 200 mg doses of caffeine over three days. They did many logical reasoning tests before taking the pills and then tested the contestants after the pills had affected their systems. The results, as shown below, showed that there was an increase in the number of correct responses after the caffeine had affected the system. This study, along with the other clearly shows that caffeine may have some positive affects on the brain while studying.
This is a very interesting blog post because I am a coffee addict and rely on it to wake me up every morning. Like you explained in your blog there are many positive affects to drinking caffeine, however, there are also negative affects that come from caffeine. The Mayo Clinic did a study that found that the men who had over 4 cups of coffee a day had a 21% increase in mortality. They also did another study that found that coffee raises blood pressure. All participants in the study had risen blood pressure after drinking. Dr. Lucio Mos conducted a study that found that coffee can increase the chance of having a heart attack. It also causes insomnia and indigestion. Here is a link to the studies from the Mayo Clinic! http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/caffeine/art-20045678
This is interesting because I always saw caffeine as something bad for you, but now it does not seem that bad! I was unaware that caffeine could actually help someone’s cognitive thoughts later. I researched it on my own, and found my results were similar to yours. This article spoke of how caffeine can positively effect mental alertness, vigilance, and feeling of well-being and arousal. It also says the brain can benefit from caffeine, with task switching, visual selective attention, response inhibition, and conflict monitoring! That could be added on to the end of your article where you slightly go into how it affects the brain.
This was a wonderful post for a coffee addict! I think it is so interesting that caffeine usage actually improves your logical thinking over an extended period of time, now I have a wonderful excuse to drink the amount of coffee I drink. I think that your blog studies could have been made better but adding in a placebo group and comparing them to actual caffeine intakes. I found a great study http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2333832 that actually uses a placebo and tests the results are fairly interesting. They are saying that the chemicals in caffeine actually help in your body and have the caffeine effect.