Is the smell of coffee enough to stimulate our brain?

Often praised for its many health benefits, coffee, according to two new American studies, brings benefits just by its smell. Researchers have discovered that the scent of a good cup of coffee can improve cognitive performance when performing certain tasks.

Conducted by the Stevens School of Business, Temple University and Baruch College, these two studies were to determine whether the smell of coffee alone could be powerful enough to stimulate cognitive performance even though it does not contain caffeine.

In the first study, researchers examined the performance of approximately 100 business school students at the Graduate Management Aptitude Test (GMAT), an adaptive computer test required by many business schools. ten questions of algebra, to be answered in a computer lab

The study participants were divided into two groups

The members of the first group had to pbad the test in a scented atmosphere in while those in the control group pbaded the same test in an atmosphere odorless .

The researchers found that members of the group " smell of coffee ] "had much better grades.

To find out more, and especially to determine whether it was the coffee smell that had increased concentration students, and consequently their performance, the team of researchers designed a Follow-up questionnaire extended to 200 other participants.

The questions asked related to participants' belief that different odors could affect human performance.

Participants reported that believed they would feel more concentrated and full of energy and that their performance in mental tasks would improve, feeling the smell of coffee , rather than the scent of a flower, or any particular smell.

These results suggest that a smell of coffee, although caffeine does not play a role, has an effect similar to the consumption of the drink. This is partly due to the participants' expectations, that is to say, to a possible placebo effect of the smell of coffee.

The researchers are now looking into the effects of the smell of coffee on other types of performance, such as verbal reasoning.

Coffee has already been recognized as having many badets for the health including a reduction risk of heart disease, diabetes and dementia; some scientists also suggest that it could lengthen life expectancy .

The results of these two studies are published (in English) on the Journal of Environmental Psychology website.