TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Even thinking about coffee can boost your brainpower, study suggests
A recent study published in the journal Consciousness and Cognition examined whether being exposed to things that remind you of coffee can arouse your mind.
Change Size
The fact that seeing coffee has a similar effect as the drink itself could influence future marketing efforts through a better understanding of consumer behavior. (Shutterstock/-)
Caffeine is a natural stimulant that boosts energy and can make you feel more awake and alert for 4 to 6 hours.
Consuming too much of it, however, can lead to insomnia, shakiness, dizziness, headaches and rapid or abnormal heart rhythm, according to Medical News Today.
“Coffee is one of the most popular beverages and a lot is known about its physical effects. However, much less is known about its psychological meaning – in other words, how even seeing reminders of it can influence how we think,” said Sam Maglio, an associate professor at the University of Toronto Scarborough´s Department of Management and the Rotman School of Management, both in Ontario, Canada.
A recent study published in the journal Consciousness and Cognition examined whether being exposed to things that remind you of coffee can arouse your mind. To analyze this psychological effect, four studies were conducted by exposing visual cues of both coffee and tea to participants from Eastern and Western cultures. The result? It turned out that even thinking about the beverage aroused the brain.
Read also: Healthy alternatives to coffee you should try
Participants that saw something that reminded them of coffee thought in more precise terms and felt that time went by faster. The effect is said to be less pronounced in Eastern cultures, probably due to the less coffee-dominated environment.
“We wanted to see if there was an association between coffee and arousal, such that if we simply exposed people to coffee-related cues, their physiological arousal would increase, as it would if they had actually had coffee,” Maglio explains.
After being exposed to subtle cues, specific brain areas were activated into a state of being alert, awake and attentive. This process of psychological arousal can be triggered by emotions or neurotransmitters, Neuroscience News reports.
The fact that seeing coffee has a similar effect as the drink itself could influence future marketing efforts through a better understanding of consumer behavior. “This has a number of implications for how people process information and make judgments and decisions,” Maglio said. (sop/kes)
