The Coffee Experience: More Than Mere Molecules

Let’s just start with what we know. People love love love their coffee — Americans drink an average of 400 Million cups per day. 

But why is that? 

Explanations range from the fact that people are going for the caffeine jolt, to the possibility that we’re all addicted to the caffeine. In other words, people naturally think it’s all about the caffeine. 

For me personally, my morning coffee kick is nice, it really is. But honestly there’s way more to coffee than being caffeine delivery device. That’s why I loved seeing this article in the Frontiers of Neuroscience, where they used “functional MRI) to peek inside people’s brains under 2 conditions.

1. When taking a standard cup of coffee
2. When taking a pill of caffeine with the same amount as was contained in that standardized cup. 

Then, they ran the functional MRI before this happened, during, and then afterwards. 

What They Found

Scientists testing coffee against plain caffeine found that plain caffeine only partially reproduces the effects of drinking a cup of coffee, activating areas of the brain that make you feel more alert but not the areas of the brain that affect working memory and goal-directed behavior.

Coffee, as well as the caffeine pill, both had stimulation effects on arousal and motivation to be active. 

However, drinking coffee also increased the connectivity in the right executive control network – parts of the brain that are involved in working memory, cognitive control, and goal-directed behavior. This didn’t happen when participants only took caffeine. 

Science-to-English Dictionary

There’s more than molecules here. The full effect of your morning mug requires that you also experience that cup of coffee, in whatever environment is most comfy for you. If you want to feel, not just alert, but ready to go caffeine alone won’t do. 

According to the authors, “In simple words, the subjects were more ready for action and alert to external stimuli after having coffee” and not just the pills. 

There’s SO many followup studies to do here — sign me up for a 7am start time! But the bottom line is that your experience is about more than mere molecules. 

Reference: “Coffee consumption decreases the connectivity of the posterior Default Mode Network (DMN) at rest” by Maria Picó-Pérez, Ricardo Magalhães, Madalena Esteves, Rita Vieira, Teresa C. Castanho, Liliana Amorim, Mafalda Sousa, Ana Coelho, Pedro S. Moreira, Rodrigo A. Cunha and Nuno Sousa, 28 June 2023, Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience.
DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1176382