Once again science confirms what everyone already knows: caffeine makes you smarter.
The caffeine found in coffee, tea, soft drinks and chocolate stimulates areas of the brain governing short-term memory and attention, Austrian researchers said on Wednesday.Functional magnetic resonance imaging scans performed on the brains of 15 subjects who had just consumed caffeine equal to that found in two cups of coffee showed increased activity in the frontal lobe where the working memory is located and in the anterior cingulum that controls attention.
"We are able to see that caffeine exerts increases in neuronal activity in distinct parts of the brain going along with changes in behavior," said Austrian researcher Dr. Florian Koppelstatter of the Medical University Innsbruck.
Plus, if you stop taking it you get headaches and mood swings.
The only caffeine in my diet is in my morning coffee (I don't drink soda). And I can definitely notice it when, for one reason or another, I don't have my morning coffee. I wouldn't say I get mood swings, but there's definitely a slight but persistent headache.
Yeah, plus, if you take enough of it, you can sleep a whole lot less.