New UTEP study finds potential negative impact of nighttime caffeine consumption
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- Caffeine junkies be warned: a new UTEP study suggests you may want to rethink your evening cup of joe.
The UTEP biologists who spearheaded the study found that nighttime caffeine consumption can increase impulsive behavior and potentially lead to reckless actions.
Published in iScience, the study looked at how caffeine consumed in the evening hours impacted inhibition and impulsivity in fruit flies.
Study leads Erick Saldes, Ph.D., Paul Sabandal, Ph.D., and Kyung-An Han, Ph.D used Drosophila melanogaster in the study because of the flies' genetic and neural parallels to humans.
“Caffeine is the most widely consumed psychoactive substance in the world, with about 85% of adults in the U.S. using it regularly,” said Sabandal, research assistant professor in UTEP’s Department of Biological Sciences. “Given caffeine’s popularity, we wanted to explore whether additional factors influence its impact on behavioral control.”
The study consisted of a series of experiments that introduced caffeine to the flies' diets at different times of the day. The team then looked at the flies' behavior, including their impulsivity. In a video released by the university, you can see the caffeinated flies are far more active than those in the control group.
“Under normal circumstances, flies stop moving when exposed to strong airflow,” said Saldes, now a science research specialist at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria and a former doctoral student at UTEP. “We found that flies consuming caffeine at night were less able to suppress movement, displaying impulsive behaviors such as reckless flying despite these aversive conditions.”
