Coffee can help you stay awake. But what does caffeine actually do to your brain once you're asleep? Using AI, a team of researchers has an answer: it affects the brain's 'criticality'.
Coffee can help you stay awake. But what does caffeine actually do to your brain once you're asleep? Using AI, a team of researchers has an answer: it affects the brain's 'criticality'. Caffeine is not only found in coffee, but also in tea, chocolate, energy drinks and many soft drinks, making it one of the most widely consumed psychoactive substances in the world.
, a team of researchers from Université de Montréal shed new light on how caffeine can modify sleep and influence the brain's recovery -- both physical and cognitive -- overnight. The research was led by Philipp Thölke, a research trainee at UdeM's Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience Laboratory , and co-led by the lab's director Karim Jerbi, a psychology professor and researcher at Mila -- Quebec AI Institute. Working with with sleep-and-aging psychology professor Julie Carrier and her team at UdeM's Centre for Advanced Research in Sleep Medicine, the scientists used AI and electroencephalography to study caffeine's effect on sleep. They showed for the first time that caffeine increases the complexity of brain signals and enhances brain"criticality" during sleep. Interestingly, this was more pronounced in younger adults. "Criticality describes a state of the brain that is balanced between order and chaos," said Jerbi."It's like an orchestra: too quiet and nothing happens, too chaotic and there's cacophony. Criticality is the happy medium where brain activity is both organized and flexible. In this state, the brain functions optimally: it can process information efficiently, adapt quickly, learn and make decisions with agility." Added Carrier:"Caffeine stimulates the brain and pushes it into a state of criticality, where it is more awake, alert and reactive While this is useful during the day for concentration, this state could interfere with rest at night: the brain would neither relax nor recover properly."To study how caffeine affects the sleeping brain, Carrier's team recorded the nocturnal brain activity of 40 healthy adults using an electroencephalogram. They compared each participant's brain activity on two separate nights -- one when they consumed caffeine capsules three hours and then one hour before bedtime, and another when they took a placebo at the same times. "We used advanced statistical analysis and artificial intelligence to identify subtle changes in neuronal activity," said Thölke, the study's first author."The results showed that caffeine increased the complexity of brain signals, reflecting more dynamic and less predictable neuronal activity, especially during the non-rapid eye movement phase of sleep that's crucial for memory consolidation and cognitive recovery." The researchers also discovered striking changes in the brain's electrical rhythms during sleep: caffeine attenuated slower oscillations such as theta and alpha waves -- generally associated with deep, restorative sleep -- and stimulated beta wave activity, which is more common during wakefulness and mental engagement. "These changes suggest that even during sleep, the brain remains in a more activated, less restorative state under the influence of caffeine," says Jerbi, who also holds the Canada Research Chair in Computational Neuroscience and Cognitive Neuroimaging."This change in the brain's rhythmic activity may help explain why caffeine affects the efficiency with which the brain recovers during the night, with potential consequences for memory processing."The study also showed that the effects of caffeine on brain dynamics were significantly more pronounced in young adults between ages 20 and 27 compared to middle-aged participants aged 41 to 58, especially during REM sleep, the phase associated with dreaming. Young adults showed a greater response to caffeine, likely due to a higher density of adenosine receptors in their brains. Adenosine is a molecule that gradually accumulates in the brain throughout the day, causing a feeling of fatigue. "Adenosine receptors naturally decrease with age, reducing caffeine's ability to block them and improve brain complexity, which may partly explain the reduced effect of caffeine observed in middle-aged participants," Carrier said. And these age-related differences suggest that younger brains may be more susceptible to the stimulant effects of caffeine. Given caffeine's widespread use around the world, especially as a daily remedy for fatigue, the researchers stress the importance of understanding its complex effects on brain activity across different age groups and health conditions. They add that further research is needed to clarify how these neural changes affect cognitive health and daily functioning, and to potentially guide personalized recommendations for caffeine intake.Chicago New research provides clues to falling fast asleep -- or lying wide awake. Studying fruit flies, researchers found that brain neurons adapt to help the flies stay awake despite tiredness in dangerous ... Coffee, cola or an energy drink: caffeine is the world's most widely consumed psychoactive substance. Researchers have now shown in a study that regular caffeine intake can change the gray matter of ... New research finds caffeine consumed during pregnancy can change important brain pathways that could lead to behavioral problems later in life. Researchers analyzed thousands of brain scans of nine ...
Brain Tumor Sleep Disorder Research Intelligence Brain-Computer Interfaces Sleep Disorders Animal Learning And Intelligence Mice Biology
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Nonverbal Neuralink Patient Is Using Brain Implant and Grok to Generate RepliesScience and Technology News and Videos
Read more »
The 7 Best Iced Coffee Makers for Summer, According to Coffee ExpertsA market-leader in the wellness space for over a decade, Well+Good is a digital publication and community dedicated to informing and empowering you to live a well life, inside and out.
Read more »
Second arrest made in ‘Brew Y’all’ coffee trailer theftMobile Police said Natasha Still helped steal the Brew Y’all coffee trailer in West Mobile.
Read more »
Brain tumor survivor using baseball to raise money, awareness for kids with cancerA community in Brooklyn is stepping up to the plate using baseball to raise money to help kids with brain cancer.
Read more »
13 Coffee Pro-Loved Pour-Overs, Grinders, and More for Brewing Perfect Coffee During Summer TravelMissing your coffee during summer travel? Grab these 13 pro-approved coffee accessories from Stanley, Yeti, AeroPress, and more for perfect coffee anywhere.
Read more »
Get Your Caffeine Fix Without the Brain Fog Thanks to This Coffee AlternativeReady to break up with coffee? Head to Juice Plus+ now and stock up on the plant-based energy boost before the secret is out.
Read more »