This is Tech

Grad Student Chris Chatam at the University of Colorado has written a comprehensive user’s guide for caffeine. Chatam’s article breaks down caffeine use from a scientific perspective, and is a must read for caffeine addicted techies like myself. Read on for an excerpt and link:

Developing Intelligence : Caffeine: A User’s Guide to Getting Optimally WiredCaffeine is the most widely used stimulant in the world, but few use it to maximal advantage. Get optimally wired with these tips.

1) Consume in small, frequent amounts.

Between 20-200mg per hour may be an optimal dose for cognitive function.

Caffeine crosses the blood-brain barrier quickly (owing to its lipid solubility) although it can take up to 45 minutes for full ingestion through the gastro-intestinal tract. Under normal conditions, this remains stable for around 1 hour before gradually clearing in the following 3-4 hours (depending on a variety of factors).

A landmark 2004 study showed that small hourly doses of caffeine (.3mg per kg of body weight [approx 20 mg per hour; thanks digg!]) can support extended wakefulness, potentially by counteracting the homeostatic sleep pressure, which builds slowly across the day and acts preferentially on the prefrontal cortex (an area of the brain thought responsible for executive and ‘higher’ cognitive functions).

At doses of 600mg, caffeine’s effects on cognitive performance are often comparable to those of modafinil, a best-of-class nootropic.

2) Play to your cognitive strengths while wired.

Caffeine may increase the speed with which you work, may decrease attentional lapses, and may even benefit recall - but is less likely to benefit more complex cognitive functions, and may even hurt others. Plan accordingly (and preferably prior to consuming caffeine!)

Caffeine has long been known to improve vigilance, but work focusing on its more more cognitive effects - through interactions with the ‘frontal task network’ - show less clear effects.

In tests of lateral prefrontal function, caffeine only remediates some fatigue-related symptoms. For example, in a random number generation task (a commonly-used measure of prefrontal function), caffeine increased the quantity of numbers generated to pre-fatigue levels, but did not significantly affect more demanding aspects of performance: caffeine didn’t affect the likelihood of subjects generating numbers outside the acceptable range, or their tendency to perseverate on particular numbers.

Click the link below to read the full article at Chris’ blog.

(Via Developing Intelligence.)

Picture by JavaTurtle