Scientists prove caffeine can increase memory performance

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) the researchers studied the effects of caffeine consumption on brain activation in a network of modules subserving the short-term memory of 15 healthy adult volunteers during a working memory task. Working memory represents the kind of brain activity required to remember things for a short period of time, like memorizing a phone number you have just looked up long enough to dial it.

A simple memory task was performed after a 12-hour period of no caffeine and a four-hour period of no nicotine exposure. Administration of 100mg of caffeine (approximately the amount in two cups of coffee) as well as placebo was randomized across volunteers so that each of them underwent a caffeine and placebo scan.

In the “caffeine condition,” the volunteers demonstrated a tendency towards improved short-term memory skills and reaction times during the task. The fMRI showed increased activity in brain regions located in the frontal lobe, where a part of the working memory network is located, and the anterior cingulum, the part of the brain that controls attention. In the “placebo condition,” the volunteers showed no change in activation patterns from the earlier test.

“What is exciting is that by means of fMRI we are able to see that caffeine exerts increases in neuronal activity in distinct parts of the brain going along with changes in behavior,” said Dr Florian Koppelstatter, radiology fellow at Medical University Innsbruck in Austria.