Caffeine boosts problem-solving ability but not creativity

While the drug is known to increase focus, alertness and motor skills, its effect on creative thinking had not been studied previously

March 5, 2020

Science Daily/University of Arkansas

Want to boost creativity? Caffeine may not be the way to go according to a news study.

Caffeine increases the ability to focus and problem solve, but a new study by a University of Arkansas researcher indicates it doesn't stimulate creativity.

"In Western cultures, caffeine is stereotypically associated with creative occupations and lifestyles, from writers and their coffee to programmers and their energy drinks, and there's more than a kernel of truth to these stereotypes," wrote Darya Zabelina, assistant professor of psychology and first author of the study recently published in the journal Consciousness and Cognition.

While the cognitive benefits of caffeine -- increased alertness, improved vigilance, enhanced focus and improved motor performance -- are well established, she said, the stimulant's affect on creativity is less known.

In the paper, Zabelina differentiates "convergent" from "divergent" thinking. The former is defined as seeking a specific solution to a problem, for example, the "correct" answer. The latter is characterized by idea generation where a large set of apt, novel or interesting responses would be suitable. Caffeine was shown to improve convergent thinking in the study, while consuming it had no significant impact on divergent thinking.

For the study, 80 volunteers were randomly given either a 200mg caffeine pill, equivalent to one strong cup of coffee, or a placebo. They were then tested on standard measures of convergent and divergent thinking, working memory and mood. In addition to the results on creativity, caffeine did not significantly affect working memory, but test subjects who took it did report feeling less sad.

"The 200mg enhanced problem solving significantly, but had no effect on creative thinking," said Zabelina. "It also didn't make it worse, so keep drinking your coffee; it won't interfere with these abilities."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200305135050.htm

Coffee affects cannabis and steroid systems

March 15, 2018

Science Daily/Northwestern University

Coffee affects your metabolism in dozens of other ways besides waking you up, including your metabolism of neurotransmitters typically linked to cannabis, a study reports. The neurotransmitters related to the endocannabinoid system -- the same ones affected by cannabis -- decreased after drinking four to eight cups of coffee in a day. That's the opposite of what occurs after someone uses cannabis. The study also gives possible insight in the cause of munchies. Coffee may also increase the elimination of steroids.

It's well known that a morning cup of joe jolts you awake. But scientists have discovered coffee affects your metabolism in dozens of other ways, including your metabolism of steroids and the neurotransmitters typically linked to cannabis, reports a new study from Northwestern Medicine.

In a study of coffee consumption, Northwestern scientists were surprised to discover coffee changed many more metabolites in the blood than previously known. Metabolites are chemicals in the blood that change after we eat and drink or for a variety of other reasons.

The neurotransmitters related to the endocannabinoid system -- the same ones affected by cannabis -- decreased after drinking four to eight cups of coffee in a day. That's the opposite of what occurs after someone uses cannabis. Neurotransmitters are the chemicals that deliver messages between nerve cells.

Cannabinoids are the chemicals that give the cannabis plant its medical and recreational properties. The body also naturally produces endocannabinoids, which mimic cannabinoid activity.

In addition, certain metabolites related to the androsteroid system increased after drinking four to eight cups of coffee in a day, which suggests coffee might facilitate the excretion or elimination of steroids. Because the steroid pathway is a focus for certain diseases including cancers, coffee may have an effect on these diseases as well.

"These are entirely new pathways by which coffee might affect health," said lead author Marilyn Cornelis, assistant professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "Now we want to delve deeper and study how these changes affect the body."

Little is known about how coffee directly impacts health. In the new study, Northwestern scientists applied advanced technology that enabled them to measure hundreds of metabolites in human blood samples from a coffee trial for the first time. The study generates new hypotheses about coffee's link to health and new directions for coffee research.

The paper will be published March 15 in the Journal of Internal Medicine.

Drinking lots of coffee for science

In the three-month trial based in Finland, 47 people abstained from coffee for one month, consumed four cups a day for the second month and eight cups a day for the third month. Cornelis and colleagues used advanced profiling techniques to examine more than 800 metabolites in the blood collected after each stage of the study.

Blood metabolites of the endocannabinoid system decreased with coffee consumption, particularly with eight cups per day, the study found.

The endocannabinoid metabolic pathway is an important regulator of our stress response, Cornelis said, and some endocannabinoids decrease in the presence of chronic stress.

"The increased coffee consumption over the two-month span of the trial may have created enough stress to trigger a decrease in metabolites in this system," she said. "It could be our bodies' adaptation to try to get stress levels back to equilibrium."

The endocannabinoid system also regulates a wide range of functions: cognition, blood pressure, immunity, addiction, sleep, appetite, energy and glucose metabolism.

"The endocannabinoid pathways might impact eating behaviors," suggested Cornelis, "the classic case being the link between cannabis use and the munchies."

Coffee also has been linked to aiding weight management and reducing risk of type 2 diabetes.

"This is often thought to be due to caffeine's ability to boost fat metabolism or the glucose-regulating effects of polyphenols (plant-derived chemicals)," Cornelis said. "Our new findings linking coffee to endocannabinoids offer alternative explanations worthy of further study."

It's not known if caffeine or other substances in coffee trigger the change in metabolites.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180315091253.htm

Importance of studying sleep and eating in tandem

October 13, 2017

Science Daily/Scripps Research Institute

A new study from scientists on the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) offers important insights into possible links between sleep and hunger -- and the benefits of studying the two in tandem. A related paper from the same lab is providing researchers an accessible tool for pursuing further investigations involving multiple fruit fly behaviors.

While many humans enjoy a daily caffeine fix, scientists have found that caffeine repels Drosophila melanogaster -- a species of fruit fly often used as a model for studying human conditions and genetics. Scientists believe that plants produce the caffeine molecule as a defense mechanism to prevent organisms such as fruit flies from eating them. Regardless of the cause of the fly's aversion, caffeine does seem to negatively impact their sleep, much like it does in humans.

Caffeine is known to stave off sleep in humans through pharmacological effects on the adenosine receptor. Nonetheless, many studies in mammals have shown genetic differences in responses to caffeine. Interestingly, caffeine apparently can prevent sleep in fruit flies despite the fact that it doesn't act through their adenosine receptor.

Erin Keebaugh, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher in Associate Professor William Ja's Laboratory at TSRI, suspected that the systems responsible for caffeine's impact on fly (and maybe human) sleep patterns are more complex than a single caffeine and receptor interaction.

In her study, published in the journal Sleep on October 3, 2017, her team gave groups of flies varying levels of dietary caffeine. They then measured how much the flies slept in the following 24 hours while on those diets. They also studied whether varying levels of caffeine impacted the insects' feeding behavior by measuring how much they ate over the same 24-hour period.

Interestingly, the team found that sleep loss couldn't be explained by caffeine intake alone. Instead, they believe that the sleep loss was mediated by changes in the animal's feeding behavior. "There could still be a pharmacological effect, but there's definitely dietary inputs to that," said Keebaugh.

The study reinforced the idea that the processes of sleep and eating need to be studied together, explained the scientists, especially as a growing number of researchers investigate the relationship between sleep and metabolic disorders. Further studies into this relationship could lead to the development of therapies that treat disorders such as obesity and diabetes.

A Closer Look at Fly Behavior

To that end, another member of the Ja Laboratory, Graduate Student Keith Murphy, has developed a new open-source, customizable technique for jointly studying multiple fly behaviors. Many studies designed to understand the interactions between multiple fly behaviors require researchers to measure each behavior separately; for example, one study measures how much the flies eat while a second study measures how much they sleep, and then the data are combined and compared. With Murphy's device, the Activity Recording CAFE (ARC), researchers could measure both behaviors simultaneously, giving the researchers a cleaner, simpler strategy to investigate previously convoluted questions.

Using the ARC protocol, as described in a paper recently published in Nature Protocols, anyone with access to a 3D printer can print the chamber and set it up in two hours or less to collect fly data. The chamber is hooked up to a computer that continuously tracks both the amount of food that a fly consumes and its position in the chamber, which can tell a researcher whether or not it's sleeping.

Though the protocol is specifically designed for studying sleep and feeding behaviors, Murphy emphasized that the ARC could be customized to study a variety of behaviors in flies. Researchers could program the machine vision program on the computer to apply optogenetic controls tied to certain behaviors, deliver vibrations or cause the fly's food to move to assess memory, motivation and other behaviors.

"We're hoping that this paper creates a community around the tool and people come up with new uses," said Murphy. "If others get on board, this thing could change what a small lab can do."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171013132234.htm

Caffeine study shows sport performance increase

December 15, 2011

Science Daily/Sheffield Hallam University

Caffeine combined with carbohydrate could be used to help athletes perform better on the field, according to new research.

Mayur Ranchordas, a senior lecturer and performance nutritionist at Sheffield Hallam University, carried out studies on footballers using caffeine and carbohydrates combined in a drink. Along with improvements in endurance caused by ingesting carbohydrate, the athletes' skill level improved after taking caffeine and carbohydrate together.

Mayur said: "There is already plenty of research that shows that caffeine and carbohydrate improve endurance, but this study shows that there is also a positive effect on skill and performance.

"We carried out three different soccer-specific match simulations of 90 minutes each -- two 45 minute sessions -- that tested agility, dribbling, heading and kicking accuracy. The test was designed to mimic a football game where the participants had to carry out multiple repeated sprints, dribble the ball around cones and shoot accurately.

"We found that the combination of carbohydrate and caffeine allowed players to sustain higher work intensity for the sprints, as well as improving shooting accuracy and dribbling during simulated soccer activity.

"These findings suggest that, for athletes competing in team sports where endurance and skill are important factors, ingesting a carbohydrate and caffeine drink, as opposed to just a carbohydrate drink, may significantly enhance performance. Our findings suggest that soccer players should choose a carbohydrate caffeine drink over a carbohydrate drink to consume before kick off and at half-time."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111214094527.htm

For women, caffeine could be ally in warding off dementia

October 3, 2016

Science Daily/Oxford University Press USA
Among a group of older women, self-reported caffeine consumption of more than 261 mg per day was associated with a 36 percent reduction in the risk of incident dementia over 10 years of follow-up. This level is equivalent to two to three 8-oz cups of coffee per day, five to six 8-oz cups of black tea, or seven to eight 12-ounce cans of cola.

"The mounting evidence of caffeine consumption as a potentially protective factor against cognitive impairment is exciting given that caffeine is also an easily modifiable dietary factor with very few contraindications," said Ira Driscoll, PhD, the study's lead author and a professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. "What is unique about this study is that we had an unprecedented opportunity to examine the relationships between caffeine intake and dementia incidence in a large and well-defined, prospectively-studied cohort of women."

The findings come from participants in the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study, which is funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Driscoll and her research colleagues used data from 6,467 community-dwelling, postmenopausal women aged 65 and older who reported some level of caffeine consumption. Intake was estimated from questions about coffee, tea, and cola beverage intake, including frequency and serving size.

In 10 years or less of follow-up with annual assessments of cognitive function, 388 of these women received a diagnosis of probable dementia or some form of global cognitive impairment. Those who consumed above the median amount of caffeine for this group (with an average intake of 261 mg per day) were diagnosed at a lower rate than those who fell below the median (with an average intake of 64 mg per day). The researchers adjusted for risk factors such as hormone therapy, age, race, education, body mass index, sleep quality, depression, hypertension, prior cardiovascular disease, diabetes, smoking, and alcohol consumption.

Science Daily/SOURCE :https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161003143558.htm