ArticlePsychopharmacology2018
Effects of caffeine on reaction time are mediated by attentional rather than motor processes.
Article in Psychopharmacology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The Caffeinated Brain Part 1: The Effects of Caffeine on Event-Related Potentials (ERPs)-A Systematic and Mechanistic Review.Nutrients · 2026Pooled it
- Trial
- The dose-dependent effect of caffeine supplementation on performance, reaction time and postural stability in CrossFit - a randomized placebo-controlled crossover trial.Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2024Trial
- Caffeine supplementation improves the cognitive abilities and shooting performance of elite e-sports players: a crossover trial.Scientific reports · 2024Trial
- Effects of caffeine ingestion on dynamic visual acuity: a placebo-controlled, double-blind, balanced-crossover study in low caffeine consumers.Psychopharmacology · 2021Trial
- Assessment of Learning Styles and Reaction Times Among Health Care Students: A Cross-Sectional Study.Cureus · 2026Article
- The EEG-Indexed Impacts of Caffeine on Auditory Novelty Processing Across Phases of the Human Menstrual Cycle.The European journal of neuroscience · 2026Article
- Failure modes and mitigations for Bayesian optimization of neuromodulation parameters.Journal of neural engineering · 2025Review
- Article
- Acute caffeine ingestion improves sport-specific and cognitive performance in elite badminton athletes.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Article
- No significant gender differences in driving-related skills following alcohol mixed with energy drinks during an experimental binge-drinking episode.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
- Caffeine improves the shooting performance and reaction time of first-person shooter esports players: a dose-response study.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2024Article
- The therapeutic potential of exercise and caffeine on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in athletes.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Review
- Common Motor Drive Triggers Response of Prime Movers When Two Fingers Simultaneously Respond to a Cue.Brain sciences · 2021Article
- International society of sports nutrition position stand: caffeine and exercise performance.Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundCaffeine has a well-established effect on reaction times (RTs) but the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying this are unclear.
methodsIn the present study, 15 female participants performed an oddball task after ingesting caffeine or a placebo, and electroencephalographic data were obtained. Single-trial P3b latencies locked to the stimulus and to the response were extracted and mediation models were fitted to the data to test whether caffeine's effect on RTs was mediated by its effect on either type of P3b latencies.
resultsStimulus-locked latencies showed clear evidence of mediation, with approximately a third of the effect of caffeine on RTs running through the processes measured by stimulus-locked latencies. Caffeine did not affect response-locked latencies, so could not mediate the effect. DISCUSSION: These findings are consistent with caffeine's effect on RTs being a result of its effect on perceptual-attentional processes, rather than motor processes. The study is the first to apply mediation analysis to single-trial P3b data and this technique holds promise for mental chronometric studies into the effects of psychopharmacological agents. The R code for performing the single trial analysis and mediation analysis are included as supplementary materials.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.