WHAT Does Caffeine Do to Your Brain? (From WalMart Connect 7.21.04)
Coffee may perk you up in the morning, but it also can impair your ability to recall words, reports the BBC News Online of research from the International School for Advanced Studies in Italy and Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. You know that "tip-of-the-tongue" feeling you get when you know you know the word, but just can't think of it? Blame it on caffeine.
Why does caffeine do this? Co-study author Valerie Lesk believes caffeine improves alertness by shutting down other brain pathways. And that makes it harder to recall words.
The study: Lesk and her colleague Stephen Womble divided 32 college students into two groups, one of which popped a pill of 200mg of caffeine and the other of which took a placebo. Then they were given a test with 100 general knowledge questions that had simple, one-word answers. Example: Name the ancient Egyptian writing. Answer: hieroglyphics. But before answering each question, the students were shown 10 words; some of these words had a similar sound as the correct answer, and others were completely unrelated. If the students were unable to answer the question, the researchers prompted them by sounding out the beginning of the answer. If the student was still unable to provide the answer, it was recorded as a "tip-of-the-tongue" episode.
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The results: The BBC News reports that caffeine aided word recall when the words the students viewed were similar to the correct answer, but when the words were unrelated to the answer, the caffeine seemed to interfere with the students' ability to recall the precise word. Lesk says caffeine helps with the current train of thought, but hinders short term memory when the thoughts are unrelated. The study findings were reported in the journal Behavioral Psychology.
