By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D.on November 25, 2010
Researchers from the University of Barcelona used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify how the brain’s neural substrate was activated when an individual consumed caffeine and glucose.
The study, which was published in the journal Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental, was led by the researcher Josep M. Serra Grabulosa.
“Our main finding is that the combination of the two substances improves cognitive performance in terms of sustained attention and working memory by increasing the efficiency of the areas of the brain responsible for these two functions,” explains Serra Grabulosa.
This supports the idea of a synergistic effect between two substances, in which each one boosts the effect of the other.
Specifically, the team found that individuals who consumed caffeine and glucose in combination showed reduced brain activation associated with the task in the bilateral parietal cortex and the left prefrontal cortex — two regions that actively participate in attention and working memory processes.
The reduced activity and the fact that no drop in behavioral performance was observed during the task suggests that the brain is more efficient under the combined effect of the two substances, since it needs fewer resources to produce the same level of performance than required by those subjects who were administered the placebo or who took only caffeine or glucose.
For the study, the team of researchers from the UB used fMRI to analyze brain activity during the n-back task, which evaluates sustained attention and working memory — basic capacities in improving everyday cognitive tasks.
In a double-blind randomized design, participants were tested after drinking a study beverage containing either caffeine, glucose or the two combined or a placebo consisting only of water. Tests were conducted with a sample of 40 healthy volunteers at the Diagnostic Imaging Centre of the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona.
An earlier study by the same research team on the effects of caffeine and glucose consumption revealed improvements in attention span and declarative memory without significant alteration of the participants’ subjective state.
The conclusions suggested that a combination of caffeine and glucose has beneficial effects on attention (sequential reaction time tasks) and learning and on the consolidation of verbal memory, none of which were observed when the substances were consumed separately.
Source: Universidad de Barcelona
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