Caffeine Helps Recognize Positive Words Faster, Say Researchers

Caffeine boosts the speed and accuracy for recognizing positive words, say researchers.

The research shows that caffeine enhances the neural processing of words with positive connotation but not those with neutral or negative associations.

Previous research has shown that caffeine increases activity in the central nervous system, and normal doses of caffeine improve performance on simple cognitive tasks and behavioural responses.

It is also known that certain memories are enhanced when strong positive or negative emotions are associated with objects, but the link between caffeine consumption and these emotional biases was unknown.

This study demonstrates, for the first time, that consuming 200 mg of caffeine, equivalent to 2-3 cups of coffee, 30 minutes before a task can improve the implicit recognition of positive words, but has no effect on the processing of emotionally neutral or negative words.

The authors of the study suggest that this effect is driven by caffeine's strong dopaminergic effects in the language-dominant regions of the brain.

The study has been published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Source: ANI