The New Brain

Yes! I'm curious about coffee's effect on dopamine levels in relation to these findings. When I researched my book, She Bets Her Life, on women gambling addicts, I found lots of info on dopamine and caffeine, mostly in relation to OCD. Since dopamine is generally regarded as a neurotransmitter that plays a huge role in feeling pleasure and well-being, I wonder how this can come into play for elderly women. I'm seventy and I don't have a personality without caffeine!

My mother was diagnosed with Parkinson's at a young age and I wonder now as per the previous poster's comment, about the effects of coffee on the development of or prevention of Parkinson's. Have any studies been done on this?

although drinking coffee is not the fountain of youth for men, beer and fags is... and that's official!

I'm 54 and already having a lot of memory loss. I don't drink coffee or tea but like soda, especialy Mountain Dew with caffeine. Does that have the same effect as coffee or tea?

I'll just bet it isn't just the caffeine in coffee that helps the brain. I am enjoying all this brain research. It's telling me to drink coffee, eat dark chocolate, and drink red wine. WHat's not to like?
While Mountain Dew has caffeine (in the US) it is also filled with all sorts of awful stuff. Drink coffee and tea....

They will probably find that there are other constituents of coffee and tea (I wonder about South American Mate?) that work synergistically with the caffeine...and that those compounds are, of course, missing from modern sodas and 'energy' drinks, rendering them less than effective.

Quite an interesting finding! I wonder how significant this finding is?
Also amazed to see that caffeine intake does not have significant effect on men. Did any one conduct experiment to see weather men may need more coffee to produce similar results like women? What can be concluded about optimum level of coffee to produce statistically significant result.

oh well, and guys die younger, cognitive declines start earlier.....darn!...at least guys are cute!...

Do you have any good vid/pod/print sources on normative cognitive aging? We''ll admit sheepishly, that we have listened, often more than once to the great publicly vid lectures on NIH site.

More posts please, you're expertise is great to have.

From the article, it seems like coffee only works for those who are over 50...How about the younger population?