Kopi, Memori, Atensi

Kunjungan ke Google-News membawa ke 67 site dengan berita senada hari ini: kafein dalam kopi, teh, dan cokelat dapat menstimulasi kawasan dalam otak yang mengatur ingatan jangka pendek dan perhatian. Sumber berita ini adalah sebuah penelitiah dari Austria.

Buat pedoyan kopi macam aku sih, ini bukan berita heboh. Udah pada tahu kok :). Buat para anti kopi, ini juga bukan berita menegangkan. Satu penelitian aja kok :). Tapi, ok, kita terusin dulu. Pakai bahasa Reuter aja yah. Males nerjemahin.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging scans performed on the brains of 15 subjects who had just consumed caffeine equal to that found in two cups of coffee showed increased activity in the frontal lobe where the working memory is located and in the anterior cingulum that controls attention.

“We are able to see that caffeine exerts increases in neuronal activity in distinct parts of the brain going along with changes in behavior,” said Austrian researcher Dr. Florian Koppelstatter of the Medical University Innsbruck.

Participants who were subjected to a 12-hour period without caffeine and a four-hour period without nicotine, another recognized stimulant found in cigarettes, were better able to remember a sequence of letters after consuming 100 milligrams of caffeine. Reaction times on short-term memory tests also improved.