The Student Room Group

Caffeine Makes You Stupid and Smart

Interesting article I just read:

Volume 35, No. 7 July/August 2004

Caffeine got your tongue?
Research suggests caffeine, prized for its alertness effects, might cause people tip-of-the-tongue moments when they recall unrelated words.

BY MARK GREER
Monitor Staff
Print version: page 20

Your first cup of coffee each morning increases your alertness, but a new study suggests caffeine--potentially because of how it interacts with neurons in the brain--might actually hinder your short-term recall of certain words. That is, it may temporarily suppress access to information locked in your memory and unrelated to your current train of thought. For example, you might struggle to remember an acquaintance's name after meeting many new people at a morning meeting.

Complete text at http://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug04/caffeine.html

Regards.
Reply 1
bollocks ... i hate researchers .. i remember they came up with a study whihc showed burger meat breads and fries caused cancer and how mcdonalds should put a warning on wat they sell like cigarattes do ...

thye should all get together and use their heads for sumthing uself ... like cancer treatment or aids ....
Reply 2
infekt
bollocks ... i hate researchers .. i remember they came up with a study whihc showed burger meat breads and fries caused cancer and how mcdonalds should put a warning on wat they sell like cigarattes do ...

thye should all get together and use their heads for sumthing uself ... like cancer treatment or aids ....


The study was very scientific. The article says:

"Previous research has found that caffeine binds with neural receptors that control excitability--thereby preventing the calming substance adenosine from binding with the neurons and instead enhancing excitement and arousal. When caffeinated people recall short-term information, these caffeine-attracting neurons fire rapidly within the neocortex, which has previously been found to enhance recall and reduce TOT instances.

In the current study, the researchers theorized that when people must recall words that sound like others they've recently heard, caffeine helps further reduce TOT because their caffeinated brains can more effectively focus on similar information."
Reply 3
That's a paradox ... until you read the article. That spoiled my paradoxical fun :frown:
Reply 4
remember reading an article that said bread causes cancer.lol..... and then the next day they said it might not.......... another that said ketchup might prevent cancer....