Tuesday, March 21, 2023
HomeFood & NutritionCaffeine Intake Improve Reactions to Moving Targets

Caffeine Intake Improve Reactions to Moving Targets

New research shows that caffeine intake positively affects dynamic visual acuity and resolves fine details where a relative motion exists between the target and the observer.

According to a new research consuming caffeine positively affects dynamic visual acuity and resolves fine details where a motion exists between the target and the observer.

At a Glance

  1. Caffeine has long been known to boost performance during physical exercise.
  2. New research suggests that the compound has an ergogenic effect on dynamic visual acuity (DVA).
  3. The placebo-controlled, double-blind, and balanced crossover study recruited 21 low caffeine consumers.
  4. Researchers found a greater accuracy for both the horizontal and random motion paths of DVA after caffeine ingestion.

What Is Caffeine?

Caffeine is a naturally occurring psychoactive compound commonly found in fruits, leaves, and beans of coffee, tea, cacao, and guarana plants. The compound is known for its modulatory effect on cognitive and physical performances. By inhibiting the action of adenosine on its receptor, the compound prevents adenosine-induced drowsiness—the known mechanism of action to explain the biological effects of the compound.

The compound also stimulates thermogenesis and fat oxidation through inhibition of phosphodiesterase, an enzyme that degrades intracellular cyclic AMP, and through antagonism of the negative modulatory effect of adenosine on increased noradrenaline release (Dulloo et al., 1992).

New research (Redondo et al., 2021) now shows that caffeine consumption may influence the ability to detect moving objects. The skill, also known as dynamic visual acuity (DVA), is critical in sports where an athlete needs to react quickly to track moving objects, hitting or catching a moving ball in sports like cricket or baseball.

Our findings show that caffeine consumption can actually be helpful for a person’s visual function by enhancing alertness and feelings of wakefulness.
coffee man sports

The researchers used a single letter “Tumbling E” chart in black on a white background at four orientations (right, left, up, and down) in the study. The participants had to indicate the correct orientation of the branches of the letter E with the keyboard’s arrow keys.

“A lot of what happens in our environment is moving — like trying to cross a busy intersection as a pedestrian or finding something on a shelf as you’re walking through the aisles of a grocery store,” said Dr. Kristine Dalton, a researcher in the School of Optometry & Vision Science at the University of Waterloo.

“Testing visual acuity under dynamic conditions can provide more information about our functional performance in these scenarios than traditional static visual acuity measurements alone.”

“While we already know that caffeine increases the velocity of rapid-eye movements, we wanted to further investigate how exactly caffeine enhances visual processing and facilitates the detection of moving visual stimuli by testing dynamic visual acuity,” said Dr. Beatríz Redondo, a researcher in the Department of Optics at the University of Granada.

Trial and Results

The researchers recruited twenty-one low caffeine consumers (22.5 ± 1.6 years) in the randomized controlled trial. Following a random order on two different days, participants consumed either caffeine (4 mg/kg) or placebo. After 60 min, the researchers assessed DVA using a recently validated software (moV& test, V&mp Vision Suite, Waterloo, Canada).

caffeine cricket ball defense

The researchers observed that participants who had consumed the caffeine capsules exhibited greater accuracy and faster speed when identifying more minor moving stimuli than those who had not consumed the tablets, and the difference was significant. The results show that the tablet positively influences stimulus processing and decision-making skills.

Caffeine consumption also influenced eye movement velocity and contrast sensitivity, essential in dynamic visual acuity performance.

“Our findings show that caffeine consumption can actually be helpful for a person’s visual function by enhancing alertness and feelings of wakefulness,” Dr. Dalton said.

“This is especially true for those critical, everyday tasks, like driving, riding a bike or playing sports, that require us to attend to detailed information in moving objects when making decisions.”

Related Publication and Further Readings

Dulloo, A. G., J. Seydoux, et al. (1992). “Potentiation of the thermogenic antiobesity effects of ephedrine by dietary methylxanthines: adenosine antagonism or phosphodiesterase inhibition?” Metabolism 41(11): 1233-1241.

Redondo, B., R. Jiménez, et al. (2021). “Effects of caff-eine ingestion on dynamic visual acuity: a placebo-controlled, double-blind, balanced-crossover study in low caff-eine consumers.” Psychopharmacology (Berl) 238(12): 3391-3398.

1 COMMENT

  1. Very nice post. I simply stumbled upon your web blog and wanted too say that I’ve really loved surfing
    around your blog posts. In any case I will be subscribing to your feed and I’m hoping you write once more very soon!

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Recent Post

ultra-processed-foods

Ultra-Processed Foods May Be Linked to Increased Risk of Cancer

0
An observational study conducted by Imperial College London reveals that greater consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF) is associated with a higher risk of developing...

MOST COMMENTED

fitness-vegan-exercise

For Weight Loss, Vegan Is Better Than the Mediterranean Diet

51
Vegan is more effective for weight loss, cholesterol control, body composition, and insulin sensitivity, when compared head to head with Mediterranean diet.

RECENT UPDATE

Ultra-Processed Foods May Be Linked to Increased Risk of Cancer

An observational study conducted by Imperial College London reveals that greater consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF) is associated with a higher risk of developing...

Cannabis Use May Increase Risk of Preterm Birth

Teenagers who use cannabis frequently may be more likely to have children born preterm, when they become parents up to twenty years later, finds a new study.

Coffee with Milk May Reduce Inflammation

Coffee is a popular beverage consumed in many parts of the world. It can be enjoyed either in black or with milk. Recent studies...

Weight Loss: Reducing Total Calories May Be More Effective than Intermittent Fasting

New research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association found that the size and number of meals were more important for weight...

Opioid Prescriptions Much Higher for Lifelong Disabilities

People with two pediatric-onset neurodevelopmental disorders are prescribed opioids at significantly higher rates than those without the conditions.