Feeling Forgetful? Have a Cuppa Coffee
Caffeine can help you remember things you've just learned, study says.
The fast-forward kick of caffeine is no news to the 80 percent of Americans who drink coffee or tea as an eye-opener. But while at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Michael Yassa, now an assistant professor of neurobiology at the University of California at Irvine, and his colleagues pinpointed another use: memory enhancer.
The research, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, shows that the stimulant strengthens memory up to 24 hours after consumption. We spoke to Yassa about their findings.
We've suspected this effect in animals for a while. For example, Geraldine Wright of Newcastle University showed that honeybees that ingested caffeinated nectar were more likely to remember a flower's scent. But studies in humans have been inconclusive
