Does drinking coffee to wake up really work? Scientists explain possible placebo effect

According to a new study published in the scientific journal Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, drinking coffee in the morning does not cause the feeling of waking up, contrary to popular belief around the world. Portuguese scientists explain that it can It is a placebo effect caused by our brain.suggests that coffee isn’t exactly responsible for helping us wake up in the morning.

As the research results indicated, drinking coffee increased the connection between the brain’s superior visual network and the right executive control network, namely areas associated with cognitive control and working memory; these regions help regulate the order of the human body. But, the same effect was not detected when study participants were given only doses of pure caffeinewithout tasting the coffee.

To conduct the study, the scientists recruited participants who were accustomed to drinking at least one cup of coffee a day. After collecting the sociodemographic data, the scientists performed two resonances on the participants, one after drinking a cup of coffee and the other after drinking coffee – the cup size was the same for all people involved.

“Given that some of the effects we found were mimicked by caffeine, we might expect other caffeinated beverages to share some effects. Others, however, were specific to coffee consumption driven by factors such as the beverage’s distinctive odor and taste or psychological expectation,” he said.

Does drinking coffee work or is it the placebo effect?

After analyzing the neurochemical effects, the scientists observed that both coffee consumption and pure caffeine intake reduced the connectivity of the brain’s default mode network. In other words, the participants were more mentally willing. coffee and caffeine were responsible for accelerating the transition from rest to activity.

As mentioned, the act of drinking coffee also activated regions of the brain associated with working memory and cognitive control; this was something that didn’t happen with pure caffeine intake. As the study’s author and co-scientist Nuno Sousa of the University of Minho explains, there is a common expectation that coffee can increase alertness and psychomotor functioning, but the study paves the way to explore other possibilities.

Anyway, the scientists explain that they haven’t investigated whether decaffeinated coffee consumption would have the same effect in participants. Reported effects may also be related to caffeine withdrawal, therefore They state that further studies are needed for a better understanding of the subject.