The 3 Most Important Psychological Effects of Caffeine

The fact of drinking a cup of coffee can change aspects of our mind.

Caffeine is the most widely consumed psychotropic drug in the world. Surely, most of us consume caffeine habitually (or, if not, have consumed it at some time in our lives). But, do we really know what are the psychological effects of caffeine?

In this article we will try to answer this question, through a review of recent scientific literature. We will see how its main effects are produced in: convergent thinking (problem solving) and the improvement in attention and concentration.

What is caffeine?

Before delving into the psychological effects of caffeine, let's see what exactly this substance consists of. Caffeine, as most of us will know, is found mainly in coffee; it is an alkaloid of the xanthine group, which acts as a psychoactive drug. an alkaloid of the xanthine group, which acts as a psychoactive drug.. Caffeine is absorbed and quickly passes to our brain; thus, it does not accumulate in the Blood nor is it stored in any part of the organism. It is excreted through urine.

The main effect of caffeine on our brain is the stimulation and/or excitation of the central nervous system, through an antagonistic mechanism.through a non-selective antagonist mechanism of the adenosine receptors. It is for this reason that many people consume caffeine to combat fatigue or short-term drowsiness. In addition, caffeine also acts as a diuretic substance (it helps our body to eliminate liquids).

Where is caffeine extracted from? Mainly from certain types of plants, although it can also be synthesized artificially.

Psychological effects of caffeine

What are the psychological effects of caffeine? To answer this question, let us look at a recent study that analyzes its effects on different cognitive processes.

As we have seen, caffeine is a psychotropic drug. a psychotropic drug; specifically, it is the most consumed drug in the world.. The main psychological effects of caffeine are: increased alertness and wakefulness, improved mood and improved concentration and attention. Some studies even speak of a possible effect of caffeine on creative thinking.

Concentration and attention

The results of the study we are going to analyze (Zabelina & Silvia, 2020) show how caffeine consumption produces greater concentration and attention.

This study used a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled design, between subjects who consumed 200 mg of caffeine (approximately one large cup of American-style coffee) vs. those who did not consume it (placebo group).

The study focused on analyzing the effects of caffeine on two types of thinking: convergent thinking (problem solving) and divergent or creative thinking (generation of creative ideas). (generation of creative ideas).

At a general level, the psychological effects of caffeine shown by this study is that caffeine significantly improves problem solving, although its effects on the generation of creative ideas and/or working memory are not so clear (no improvement), as we will see below.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that the study controlled for the participants' expectations the expectations of the participants so that their belief of having consumed caffeine or not, did not alter the results..

Problem solving 2.

The aforementioned study (Zabelina & Silva, 2020) showed how caffeine consumption (200 mg), was associated with better results in problem solving (specifically, faster solving). This, in turn, was associated with an improvement in the speed of information processing..

The psychological effects of caffeine manifested in this study are in line with that of previous studies such as the research by Rao et al. 2005.

Furthermore, these studies also establish that caffeine consumption is related to an improvement in problem solving (at a general level, regardless of whether the approach is more analytical or more global) and in other higher order cognitive processes (e.g. response inhibition).

The improvement in attention is realized, among others, in visual tasks that require the use of selective attention.. These results are related to increased activity in the prefrontal area of the brain.

3. Creative thinking

Do the psychological effects of caffeine also extrapolate to creative thinking? Regarding this type of thinking (also called divergent thinking), a priori, the aforementioned study shows how caffeine did not affect the generation of creative ideas.

On the other hand, it is known that this type of thinking is related to increased alpha activity in the brain (related, in turn, to relaxation and network inhibition). Caffeine reduces alpha activity, so it would be expected that this substance would reduce the generation of divergent thinking..

However, the results are not clear, as another line of work reports complex interactions that occur between top-down and bottom-up cognitive processes during divergent thinking.

Disparate results

As for the psychological effects of caffeine on creative or divergent thinking, it is not clear whether caffeine has any effect on it.

However, according to the study analyzed, it may also be that the amount of caffeine administered to the participants (200 mg) is not sufficient to produce a relevant effect on the generation of ideas during divergent thinking. It is expected that higher amounts (e.g. 400 mg) would negatively affect this type of thinking, making it more difficult.

More or better creative ideas?

It is worth mentioning that the test used to assess divergent thinking in the study by Zabelina & Silva (2020), called ATTA (battery of divergent thinking tasks), may reflect mainly the number of creative ideas that people can generate, and not so much the quality of these ideas..

This is worth taking into account because it could "alter" the results, in the sense that the effects of caffeine would be null to generate many ideas, but that the few generated, could be very good.

Placebo effect in the study

In the Zabelina & Silva study, some participants did not take the caffeine capsule, but a placebo capsule.

In relation to this, it was seen how the participants who consumed the caffeine capsule were just as likely to guess whether their capsule was a caffeine capsule as a placebo capsule. (i.e., equally likely to get it wrong); however, the participants in the placebo capsule were more likely to get it right (by saying that their capsule was a placebo).

What is interesting about this data? That such results are in line with what previous literature on the subject says (Griffiths et al., 1990), and that is that discrimination in this sense is reduced after consuming caffeine.

Bibliographical references:

• Griffiths, R. R. R., Evans, S. M., Heishman, S. J., Preston, K. L., Sannerud, C. A., Wolf, B., & Woodson, P. P. (1990). Low-dose caffeine discrimination in humans. Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, 252(3), 970-978.
• Rao, A., Hu, H., & Nobre, A. C. (2005). The effects of combined caffeine and glucose drinks on attention in the human brain. Nutritional Neuroscience, 8(3), 141-153.
• Zabelina, D. L., & Silvia, P. J. (in press). Percolating ideas: The effects of caffeine on creative thinking and problem solving. Consciousness and Cognition.