Apparently there is more to the little bean than meets the eye. All research so far has shown that caffeine is a boon to memory and can even act as a staunch defender of the blood-brain barrier. So while you may rely on a cup of coffee in the morning to help you face the day, one day this cup a day might help you face down Alzheimer's disease.
Concept
Caffeine, just like alcohol, nicotine and antidepressants, can enter the usually fiercely guarded central nervous system through its open door policy for lipophilic, small molecules. Once inside the brain, caffeine is versatile, being able to affect and protect memory in various ways.
Blood-brain Barrier
The brain is protected by the blood-brain barrier, which consists of a tight conjunction of proteins tightly binding the cells of the BBB together. Caffeine prevents cholesterol from interfering and leaking through that barrier into the brain. In this way, caffeine might be protecting the brain from memory loss through Alzheimer's disease, because high cholesterol has been found to be one of the risk factors for that disease. A study published in "Journal of Neuroinflammation" and reported on the website ScienceDaily shows that one cup of coffee a day could protect the BBB from this type of leakage.
Neuronal Activity
Short-term memory, the kind you use when you look up a phone number and --- hopefully --- remember it long enough to dial it, also profits from caffeine. Dr. Florian Koppelstätter, radiology fellow at Medical University Innsbruck in Austria, led a team observing students with functional magnetic resonance imaging, which enabled them to watch specific areas of the brain light up as the students performed those memory tasks. Intake of 100 mg of caffeine improved short-term memory skills and reaction times during the task performance, versus no improvement for the placebo group.
Aging
Caffeine seems to be metabolized differently by women; they clearly derive more benefit from the substance. Particularly when it comes to the aging process, caffeine provides protection against cognitive decline that is not found in men. A study published in the journal "Neurology" and reported on ScienceDaily found that women 65 and older had less decline on memory tests if they drank more than three cups of coffee or tea per day than women who drank one cup or less. These benefits increased with age.
Adenosine
As a person ages, a brain chemical called adenosine becomes more prevalent. When adenosine binds with the brain cell molecular receptor A1, it slows cognitive learning capacity by reducing the firing of nerve cells.This activity, called gamma rhythms, normally occurs at 40 times per second. The Daily Mail reports that researchers headed by Dr. Martin Vreugdenhil of the University of Birmingham, discovered that caffeine alters the brain's electrical activity by boosting those gamma rhythms; it simply prevents adenosine from binding with the molecular receptor A1. In addition, according to Dr. Vreugdenhil, drinking coffee on a regular basis --- though not too much --- could eventually increase gamma rhythms threefold.
False Memory, Too
The brain responds so keenly to caffeine, it not only remembers true memories with greater alacrity, but even "remembers" false ones. Students at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, were administered either a caffeine tablet of 200 mg or a lactose placebo and, after 30 minutes, had to recall six word lists. According to the study published in "Psychological Reports," the caffeinated group not only recalled more words but also more semantically related words that had been "planted" and were not on the original list than did the placebo group.
