Caffeine is said to have a "surprising" and shocking effect on the brain's ability to process content City Magazine

Research has shed new light on the effects of caffeine on the brain and learning. Does our morning coffee really improve our abilities?

Caffeine, often perceived as an alertness and concentration booster, has recently become the subject of new research that challenges these beliefs. Researchers from the Neuromodulation Research Facility at Butler Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, analyzed brain signals related to learning and storing memories in 20 people. Their results show that consuming significant amounts of caffeine every day can limit brain plasticity - the brain's ability to restructure itself and learn new things.

Caffeine works by blocking adensine, a brain chemical that helps us feel sleepy at the right time. Adensine also affects a process called long-term potentiation (LTP), which is crucial for strengthening the connections between neuronal cells in the brain, which is important for accepting new information and adapting the brain over time.

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16 people who drank between one and five caffeinated drinks a day and four people who rarely consumed caffeine participated in the study. While all were exposed to a brain stimulation procedure designed to mimic readiness to learn, stronger LTP effects were found in those who did not consume caffeine.

These results suggest that regular caffeine stimulation could, in theory, produce the opposite effect in the brain, which would explain the lower levels of plasticity. Nevertheless, it should be emphasized that the study was conducted on a small sample of people and that the results were collected based on the self-report of the participants.

The researchers plan to continue the study, more precisely controlling the timing of caffeine intake and its dosage before testing. The goal is to better understand how caffeine affects learning and memory mechanisms and the potential influence of caffeine on the clinical effects of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS).

This research raises new questions about the role of caffeine in our lives and its impact on our cognitive abilities. Although further research is still needed, it is clear that the relationship between caffeine and health is complex and requires a more detailed understanding.