I was told before I came to college that I would start
drinking coffee and lots of it to get through my day. Surprisingly, I am not
addicted to coffee after three years of being in college, but I do have a habit
of drinking tea almost every day. While green tea is not my favorite (I prefer
black tea or the occasional chai to get me through my day), I was immediately
intrigued by this study. If there is some sort of health benefit to my tea
drinking habit, then that is good news. Even if it means that I need to start
enjoying the occasional cup of green tea.
Researchers at the University of Basel in Switzerland have
found that green tea extract can enhance working memory. Their findings published in the journal, Psychopharmacology, are based off of an experiment
in where male volunteers drank soda with several grams of green tea extract
mixed in. Then they participated in a few working memory tasks and an MRI scan.
Researchers found that there was increased connectivity between the parietal
and frontal lobe. We all know that the frontal lobe is the part of the brain
that controls our executive functions and decision-making tasks while the
parietal lobe is involved in processing sensory information such as touch and
directing our movements. The article stated that findings may suggest that
green tea extract may enhance short term synaptic plasticity as well, the
ability of synapses to change over time and become stronger or weaker depending
on their activity.
It may seem like a small finding, but if further research is
conducted this could mean that green tea could play a role in treating
neuropsychiatric disorders like dementia. While I think this study is interesting,
I want to know why female volunteers were not used in the study. And if they
were, would the results be different based on gender? I am also skeptical on
how a few grams of green tea extract could have this effect on people so I am
interested to see if any research is conducted to try and understand the neural
mechanism behind this finding. While the study claimed green tea extract
increases connectivity between the frontal and parietal lobes, it did not
explain the neural mechanism behind the results.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140407101545.htm
Hey Emily! Your post immediately caught my eye because I love green tea! I usually drink it at night before I go to sleep, however, the study you are talking about is making me think I should try it while I'm studying or in class. Also, I definitely agree with the questions you posed because I would love to have a better understanding of how they think the tea helps with memory. I am also curious to see if green could help those with other diseases or even memory loss.
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