Many people will claim that their day can’t really start until they have finished their morning cup of coffee. 

Needing the caffeine to function is a common statement, but new research published this week shows that it’s not the caffeine that is making the difference- but the process of drinking the hot drink that matters. 

Published in the journal Frontiers in Behavioural Neuroscience, the scientists carried out functional MRI scans on volunteers before and 30 minutes after they drank a cup of coffee or took the equivalent amount of caffeine. 

During the scans, the volunteers were asked to relax and let their minds wander. 

The scans found that, as expected, there was a change in the integration of networks linked to the prefrontal cortex associated with executive memory and the network involved in introspection and self-reflection for both the coffee and the caffeine consuming volunteers. 

Unexpectedly, the group that drank coffee also showed an increase in connectivity in the higher visual network and right executive control network which are parts of the brain involved in working memory, cognitive control and goal-directed behaviour.  The caffeine only consuming group did not show any increase in these parts of the brain. 

This means that in order to feel alert and ready to get up and start your day, caffeine alone won’t help – you actually need to experience the process of drinking a cup of coffee to change your brain state to motivate you to get going. 

While the study didn’t look into the effects of why the drink itself made the difference, the authors suggest that factors including the smell and taste of the coffee as well as the psychological expectation associated with drinking a coffee could all contribute to why coffee makes people feel more alert in the morning. 

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