The affects of caffeine were studied at Johns Hopkins University to study the effects of caffeine on long-term memory. Several studies conducted much earlier, associated coffee with improvement in the condition of patients suffering from age-related diseases (cognitive decline, heart disorder, Alzheimer’s, and liver infection). This recent study is the first of its kind to show that coffee is beneficial to long-term memory, as well.
The Caffeine Study
In the study, participants were asked to memorize a list of objects and were later given either 200 milligrams of caffeine – a little more than one cup of coffee – or a placebo. They were tested again the following day and the result was staggering: those who took caffeine had over 10% better recall.
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Lead researcher Michael Yassa said that the coffee-taking participants remembered more details of the objects on the list. Yassa and his team concluded that caffeine, which has long been known to have cognition-enhancing properties, makes a person alert and focused on the task at hand.