If you’re anything like us, the first coffee of the day is the only thing that can get us up on a morning – and it turns out, there’s real science behind it. Everyone knows that coffee can give us a welcome caffeine hit, but it’s now been revealed that the drink also gives us an extra ‘special boost’ too. Scientists have claimed that the act of drinking a cup of joe gives the body a lift, making us more alert, which can’t be replicated merely with caffeine. In fact, new research shows that drinking hot coffee activates additional areas of the brain. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Scientists from the University of Minho in Portugal and elsewhere looked into the effects of coffee outside of just caffeine content as part of a study – and they found that plain caffeine didn’t have the same impact. In fact, a cup of coffee also influenced working memory and goal-directed behaviour. “There is a common expectation that coffee increases alertness and psychomotor functioning. When you get to understand better the mechanisms underlying a biological phenomenon, you open pathways for exploring the factors that may modulate it and even the potential benefits of that mechanism,” study co-author Nuno Sousa explained. Experts said that drinking coffee actually increased the connectivity in the brain’s more advanced nerve network controlling vision, and other parts involved in working memory, cognitive control and goal-directed behaviour – something not found when participants only took caffeine. Researchers also said that if subjects wanted to not just feel alert but ready to go, caffeine alone might not do the job. “Acute coffee consumption decreased the functional connectivity between brain regions of the default mode network, a network that is associated with self-referential processes when participants are at rest,” study co-author Maria Picó-Pérez said. “The subjects were more ready for action and alert to external stimuli after having coffee,” she added. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Mizkif has responded to Adin Ross' recent controversial take on his Twitch ban

By Luc Cohen NEW YORK (Reuters) -A U.S. judge on Tuesday denied Sam Bankman-Fried's bid to have criminal charges against

AstraZeneca is putting its money where its mouth is when it comes to fighting climate change and biodiversity

CLEVELAND--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 13, 2023--

Sony Group Corp. raised its outlook for sales and net income for the fiscal year as its PlayStation

Gamers typically don't turn to Apple hardware for their video game fix, but macOS 14

The US Department of Education has opened a civil rights investigation into Harvard University's policy of giving family members of former students and donors preference...

More than a week after educators first hit the picket line, the Oakland Education Association, which represents public school teachers in Oakland, California, announced Monday morning it has reached a tentative agreement with the Oakland Unified School District, ending the strike and sending some 35,000 students back to class.

The European Union will join an international effort to assess whether large-scale interventions such as deflecting the sun’s

REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 20, 2023--

'Alan Wake 2' is arriving on October 27.