As a result, German scientists wanted to find out whether caffeine, known to improve the ability to perform certain mental activities (during simple tasks), was capable of affect also this perception of concepts. More specifically, the researchers wanted to determine whether caffeine is capable of balancing this state of affairs and influencing our perception by reducing the perception of positive and negative stimuli to an equal level. Therefore, the team of researchers prof. Lars Kuchinke, who specializes in experimental psychology at Ruhr University, asked 66 volunteers to identify existing words in a string of letters moving across the screen as quickly as possible. First, however, all people were subjected to the experiment. Participants took specific pills: half of them received 200mg of caffeine (equivalent to 2 or 3 cups of coffee) and the rest of the placebo. Results: in subjects who took caffeine, the ability to recognize positive words turned out to be 7% higher from the ability to recognize negative words. In other words, caffeine was conducive to improving the respondents’ ability to recognize positive words, but had no effect on the cognitive processing of neutral or negative words. This substance is known to be stimulation of dopamine secretion in our brain, known as the “pleasure transmitter”.
source: ScienceNews.pl