Just the thought of coffee causes stimulating effects

Coffee is not only in the German one of the most popular pick-me-up. However, you do not need to drink a hot drink again, to get up to speed in the swing. Even the thought of coffee provides an energy boost. The researchers have now found now.

Germans love coffee

Coffee is one of the most popular drinks of the Germans. Every German citizen drinks on average, about 160 litres per year. The popular was the hot drink for a long time as harmful to health, but today we know that coffee is healthier than is often assumed. Nonetheless, the majority of the consumers consumed the drink, not for health reasons, but rather as a Wake-up call. For this, you do not need to drink coffee but not necessarily – the very thought of it enough to get you in the swing.

The Positive effects without the consumer

For millions of people each day begins with a hot Cup of coffee, you activate the brain for the day.

The morning coffee promotes interpersonal encounters that provides for the physical Well-being, and is, for some, Epicureans an unmissable Ritual, writes the Australian-new Zealand Association of higher education institutions / Institut Ranke-Heinemann in a message.

But can achieve the coffee lovers the same positive effects of morning milk coffee, by you to react easily to stimuli that remind you of coffee – in other words, on smells, visual impressions and sounds?

With this question have now scientists from the Monash University in Melbourne (Australia) and the University of Toronto (Canada) in a study.

The researchers found that the mere thought of coffee at coffee lovers may lead to an intense placebo effect, without having to take the hot drink actually.

The results of the study were published recently in the journal “Consciousness and Cognition”.

Stimulation of the Central nervous system

Dr. Eugene Chan of Monash University, and Sam Maglio of the University of Toronto have tested the connection between coffee and the activation of the Central nervous system (subject: “Arousal”), in order to find out whether the perception of Stimuli can bring the same cognitive benefits as a caffeine Kick.

“As long as people associate coffee with a state of excitement, regardless of where the Association originates, can stimulate the perception of sensory stimuli that remind you of coffee, the Central nervous system, without some Form of caffeine,” explains Dr. Chan said in a statement.

“The mere scent of coffee causes the psychoactive and stimulating effects of the hot drink,” says the author of the study.

According to the experts the reason is that the brains of regular coffee drinkers conditioned to react a certain way to coffee, as it describes the phenomenon of Pavlov’s dog.

“So already you can go over to our favorite cafe, the smell of coffee grounds, or the perception of Stimuli in the Form of coffee-advertising triggering the chemical receptors in our bodies so that we can achieve the same excitation conditions without the actual consumption of coffee,” explains Dr. Chan.

Study participants were coffee – and tea-related Stimuli exposed to

To reach their conclusions, the researchers 871 study participants from Western and Eastern cultures in four different experiments, coffee – and tea-related Stimuli, which was the drink thinking, without having to take it actually.

In one Experiment, the subjects were asked to develop advertising slogans for coffee or tea. In this one, they should invent reports on the health benefits of coffee and Tea.

Throughout the investigation, the level of arousal and the heart rate of the researchers were monitored.

According to the figures, a psychological effect that is referred to as a “mental abstraction”, the focus of the study.

This effect determines how the person thinks and processes information, and whether he focuses on smaller Details or the overall picture.

Nutrition affects our way of Thinking

The results of the study show that the perception of coffee-Stimuli, i.e. images, smells and sounds, the can of a coffee think, the attention, energy and heart rate of the people increase and their cognitive performance can improve.

As the scientists discovered, was widely used in the cognitive-changing effect of coffee for participants from Western countries, since coffee is there compared to the Eastern countries, more and more popular and with energy, concentration and ambition.

In addition, coffee is said to have a greater stimulating effect than tea.

“Our research has some fascinating conclusions can be drawn, as it demonstrates that less physiological aspects rather than the psychological Associations can change our cognitive patterns,” says Dr. Chan.

“This study might even explain to help, like Drinking decaffeinated coffee to faster reaction times in the solution of tasks can lead,” says the expert.

“Maybe the mental link between coffee and the state of excitement is so strong that they can cause cognitive changes, even if it was purely physiologically no caffeine intake,” he says of the researchers.

“This contributes to the growing amount of literature, which documented that the food we eat and the beverages we drink, that we do not simply feed or pleasure – the mere contact with them or remembering them affects our way of Thinking.“ (ad)