up:: Content
author:: Orianna Rosa Royle
full title:: That Morning Coffee You Swear by May Just Be a Placebo, Neuroscience Study Finds
url: Link
Highlights
- But according to new research, the get-up-and-go that most people feel soon after sipping the popular caffeinated drink could just be a placebo (View Highlight)
- the mere ritual of turning on the coffee machine, and stirring in milk or sugar is enough for people to feel a palpable buzz—before even taking a sip (View Highlight)
- Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience (View Highlight)
- Habitual coffee consumers justify their life choices by arguing that they become more alert and increase motor and cognitive performance and efficiency (View Highlight)
- recruited people who drank at least one cup of coffee a day and gave them two MRI scans—one three hours before any caffeine had been consumed and one shortly after drinking either coffee or hot water with the same amount of caffeine in it (View Highlight)
- connectivity of the default mode network (the part of the brain involved in introspection and self-reflection processes) was decreased after drinking coffee and after taking water with caffeine, showing that consuming any form of caffeine makes it easier for people to wake up and feel alert. (View Highlight)
- placebo effect comes in: Drinking coffee also increased the connectivity in the higher visual network and the right executive control network—something that didn’t happen in those who only took caffeine. (View Highlight)