Boyle, NB, Lawton, CL orcid.org/0000-0003-2341-0793 and Dye, L orcid.org/0000-0002-2331-4227 (2018) The Effects of Carbohydrates, in Isolation and Combined with Caffeine, on Cognitive Performance and Mood - Current Evidence and Future Directions. Nutrients, 10 (2). 192. ISSN 2072-6643
Abstract
This review examines the effects of carbohydrates, delivered individually and in combination with caffeine, on a range of cognitive domains and subjective mood. There is evidence for beneficial effects of glucose at a dose of 25 g on episodic memory, but exploration of dose effects has not been systematic and the effects on other cognitive domains is not known. Factors contributing to the differential sensitivity to glucose facilitation include age, task difficulty/demand, task domain, and glucoregulatory control. There is modest evidence to suggest modulating glycemic response may impact cognitive function. The evidence presented in this review identifies dose ranges of glucose and caffeine which improve cognition, but fails to find convincing consistent synergistic effects of combining caffeine and glucose. Whilst combining glucose and caffeine has been shown to facilitate cognitive performance and mood compared to placebo or glucose alone, the relative contribution of caffeine and glucose to the observed effects is difficult to ascertain, due to the paucity of studies that have appropriately compared the effects of these ingredients combined and in isolation. This review identifies a number of methodological challenges which need to be considered in the design of future hypothesis driven research in this area.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | (c) 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Keywords: | carbohydrate; caffeine; cognitive performance; subjective mood; glycemic response; glucose |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Psychology (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 21 May 2018 13:36 |
Last Modified: | 14 Feb 2019 16:43 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | MDPI |
Identification Number: | 10.3390/nu10020192 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:131047 |