Yet another tiny research tentative discovery about possible small biomedical effects of coffee and/or tea:
“Post-study caffeine administration enhances memory consolidation in humans,” Daniel Borota, Elizabeth Murray, Gizem Keceli, Allen Chang, Joseph M Watabe, Maria Ly, John P Toscano and Michael A Yassa [pictured here], Nature Neuroscience, epub 2014. The authors, at Johns Hopkins University and the University of California, Irvine, performed their experiment on 160 people who do not regularly drink much caffeine. They measured long-term effects, where they defined long-term to mean one day. They report:
“Caffeine enhanced performance 24 h after administration according to an inverted U-shaped dose-response curve; this effect was specific to consolidation and not retrieval. We conclude that caffeine enhanced consolidation of long-term memories in humans.”
BBC News interviewed study leader Yassa, who described two highlights of their discovery :
- “Our study suggests that 200mg of coffee is beneficial to those who do not regularly ingest caffeine”.
- “We also show an inverted U-shape dose response suggesting that higher doses may not be as beneficial”.
Johns Hopkins produced this scholarly cute video to boost awareness of the study:
(Thanks to Roger Highfield for bringing the study to our attention.)
BONUS (unrelated): The Coffee Diet. Below, video of the premiere of the song” The Coffee Diet”, at the 2004 Ig Nobel Prize ceremony: