Drinking coffee is a multi-sensory experience. Sight, smell, taste – they all influence how we perceive taste. However, it turns out that coffee can affect our senses, especially touch.
As reported Independenta study recently published in the journal aimed to examine “how normal and high doses of caffeine affect specific brain processes” related to the interpretation of one’s own body touch and movement.
To do this, they used a method called short-latency afferent inhibition (SAI), in which the subject’s wrist is subjected to a delicate electric shock and then a magnetic pulse is soon sent to the subject’s brain. A signal from the wrist reaches the somatosensory area of the brain, “and milliseconds later, a magnetic pulse hits the nearby motor cortex, causing the thumb to twitch.”
To prevent vibrations, the brain makes a “coordinated effort of specific chemical messengers in the brain,” which prevents the brain from “overreacting to a single touch” and maintaining “silky and controlled movements.”
To test the effects of coffee on NOK, 20 participants were given 200 mg of caffeine or a placebo. Magnetic pulses were then stimulated in the motor cortex to see how the brain responded. They found that participants consuming caffeine showed greater control over their response to stimuli.
Scientists say this coffee’s “increased SAI” may be due to caffeine’s ability to block adenosine receptors in the brain, which in turn increases levels of acetylcholine, a chemical that “helps control how our senses work together and muscle movement.” They also note that these findings have the potential to impact our understanding of coffee’s effects on physical movement, with particular emphasis on diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
So, although drinking coffee is often associated with jitteriness, it can actually be quite the opposite and provide better motor control.
