ReviewCureus2021
The Neurophysiology of Caffeine as a Central Nervous System Stimulant and the Resultant Effects on Cognitive Function.
Review in Cureus, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 60 papers, 4 of them syntheses 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
60 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 123 citations in OpenAlex.
- Acute caffeine supplementation as a nutrition-based strategy to mitigate sleep-loss-related cognitive and operational performance impairments in military personnel: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Pooled it
- Effects of caffeine on neuroinflammation in anxiety and depression: a systematic review of rodent studies.Translational psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Effect of Guarana (Nutrients · 2023Pooled it
- Neurovascular-immune mediator dynamics in migraine: State-dependent effects of caffeine.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2026Trial
- Methylphenidate (Ritalin) does not improve exam performance in an experimental setting.Psychopharmacology · 2026Trial
- Effects of Acute Guarana (Nutrients · 2024Trial
- Trial
- Trial
- Curiositas - Medicine in the Kitchen.The Ulster medical journal · 2026Article
- Liberica Coffee (Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Habitual coffee intake shapes the gut microbiome and modifies host physiology and cognition.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Factors Contributing to Short-Term Structural Variability in a Longitudinal MRI Dataset.Human brain mapping · 2026Article
- Motor-Cognitive Associations in Older Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study Toward Self-Assessment Tools.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Caffeine as an Ergogenic Aid for Neuromuscular Performance: Mechanisms of Action from Brain to Motor Units.Nutrients · 2026Review
- Protective Role of Coffee in Thioacetamide-induced Nephrotoxicity: A Study in Rats.Current pharmaceutical biotechnology · 2026Article
- The intervention effect of caffeine oral tablets on mental fatigue induced by nap deprivation: based on assessments of heart rate variability, cognitive performance and subjective fatigue-a pilot study.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Caffeine ingestion improves morning neuromuscular performance to evening levels in healthy females.PloS one · 2026Article
- Caffeine toxicity in zebrafish - Neurobehavioral changes, developmental defects, and oxidative stress: A review.Biomolecules & biomedicine · 2025Review
- Association between caffeine intake and fat free mass index: a retrospective cohort study.Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Caffeine is one of the world's most consumed drugs. According to the Washington Post (2015), two billion cups of coffee are consumed per day worldwide. Caffeine is classified as a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant and an organic molecule called methylxanthine. Caffeine has three notable mechanisms of action on the CNS that produce a psychostimulant effect. These effects are responsible for the effect that caffeine has on cognitive function. The effects of caffeine consumption on cognitive function have been demonstrated across several studies involving humans and animals. With the immense number of people consuming caffeine around the world, it is of vital importance to study the effects that this drug has on people's cognitive function. This literature review provides useful insights on this question through the analysis of caffeine's effects on cognitive function, along with information on caffeine's three modes of action. The findings of recent studies show mixed results regarding the effects of caffeine on mood, attention, processing speed, and memory. Current research suggests that if caffeine does have an effect on mood, the most significant changes may be anxiety. Studies did not support caffeine as having any significant effect on attention, but that it did play a role in enhancing processing speed. The majority of the studies reviewed suggest caffeine as having a significant positive effect on both short and long-term memory in adults and the elderly. Current findings warrant continued research on the association of caffeine and the resultant effects on cognitive function.
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.