Caffeinated Coffee May Help Retain New Memories

Tue, Aug 18, 15 by Jim Couch

One newly-discovered perk of coffee is that it may help in retaining new memories. According to researchers at Johns Hopkins University and UC- Irvine, people drinking at least two cups of caffeinated coffee daily may be better able to form certain kinds of memories than those who do not.

Young adults who don’t drink much coffee and hadn’t had any that day were recruited for the experiment and were shown a variety of pictures of objects, then asked whether the picture depicted an indoor or outdoor item. Soon after viewing the pictures, the subjects took either a caffeine pill (two cups of coffee worth) or a placebo.

The next day, they returned to the lab and were shown images and asked to label the ones that were repeats from the previous day. Some of the pictures were obvious additions, but some were subtle changes not readily recognized. Those subjects who had taken the caffeine pill were much more adept at picking out the subtle differences.

One cup of coffee’s worth of caffeine did not show a noticeable difference from the placebo, and three cups showed the same effect as two. Read more here!