If you’re one of those students who leaves their studying to the last day, you may want to purchase a coffee maker. A recently published article in Nature Neuroscience found that the consumption of caffeine can help you memorize better. Now, before you run to Tim Horton’s to order their largest cup of coffee, realize that you only need 200mg of caffeine in order for this to work, which is equivalent to about one cup of coffee. They found that if you ingest 200mg of caffeine after you have finished memorizing, you will be able to retain the information for longer.
A pile of homework left to the last minute by a college student. (via Google)
The researchers experimented with different dosages of caffeine to see which dosage would give the best results. The participants were also given 100mg and 300mg of caffeine, but 200mg was found to be the most effective.
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A cup of coffee. (via Google)
The researchers selected 160 healthy coffee drinking rookies, between the ages of 18 and 30. Luckily, most of us students fall into this age range. The participants were randomly assigned to 200mg of caffeine pills or 200mg of a placebo pill. On day 1, participants were shown an image and were required to study that image. They were then given either a caffeine or a placebo pill. One day after taking the placebo or caffeine pill, the participants were shown the original image and an image that looked similar to it. Those who were given caffeine were better able to determine that the similar image was not the same as the original image.
A pile of coffee beans. (via Google)
However, there are limitations to caffeine. Researchers have not been able to link caffeine benefits to long-term memory retention. So the next step in the field of caffeine and our well-being, is learning the mechanism in which caffeine increases short-term memory. From there researchers hope to figure out if caffeine can be linked to long-term memory.
Baltej Sekhon
