Check out this hot-off-the-press publication by Kapellou et al. from St Mary’s University in London, where questionnaires, cognitive tests, and genotyping were used to investigate the interactions between genetics and habitual caffeine consumption on cognitive performance.
Healthy participants completed questionnaires on sociodemographic, health, and lifestyle factors and caffeine and alcohol intake.
They were then subjected to cognitive tests to assess social and emotional cognition, memory, attention, and executive function.
Finally, DNA was collected remotely from participants using an Isohelix RapiDri™ Swab kit. DNA was extracted and samples were genotyped at loci associated with caffeine metabolism and response, using TaqMan® SNP genotyping assays.
The findings suggest an association between genetic caffeine metabolism, habitual caffeine intake, and cognitive function in terms of social cognition and executive function.
Participants were grouped into ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ metabolizers:
- ‘Fast’ metabolizers consumed significantly more caffeine than ‘slow’ metabolizers.
- ‘Slow’ metabolizers performed better than ‘fast’ metabolizers in emotion recognition among high-caffeine consumers.
- “Fast’ metabolizers performed better than ‘slow’ metabolizers in the executive function domain, but only within moderate caffeine consumers.
The study confirms that the association between caffeine and cognition is domain-specific, with social and emotional cognition and executive linked to habitual intake. It also replicates previous findings that ‘fast’ metabolizers consume more caffeine. More research in natural environments using larger cohorts is needed to confirm these findings and understand how habitual caffeine may influence cognitive function based on individual genotypes.
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