Could the smell of coffee be enough to stimulate your brain? | Life

NEW YORK, July 19 – Often touted for its many health benefits, new research suggests that you may not even need to drink coffee to reap some of its rewards, according to an American study. Joe's could help give people a cognitive boost that improves performance on certain tasks.

Led by the Stevens School of Business with researchers from Temple University and Baruch College, the team conducted two studies to determine if the smell of coffee alone. , which has no caffeine, could be strong enough to boost cognitive performance.

In the first study, researchers looked at the Graduate Management Aptitude Test, or GMAT, an adaptive test required by many business schools.

They gave a GMAT algebra test of 10 questions to about 100 undergraduate students. a computer lab, and divided the participants into two groups.

One group took the test in the presence of an ambient-type coffee scent, while a control group took the same test in an unscented room.

The researchers found that the group in the room smelled the coffee significantly higher on the test.

To investigate further, and find out if it was the smell of coffee that heightened alertness and improved performance, the team designed a follow-up survey that they gave to more than 200 new participants.

The group was asked about their beliefs about various smells and their perceived effects on human performance, with participants stating that they believed that they would feel more alert and energetic when smelling a fragrance of coffee, compared to a flower scent or no smell.

They also said that exposure to coffee scent would increase their performance on mental tasks.

The results suggest that a smell of coffee, although there is no caffeine, has an effect similar to coffee consumption partly because of participants' expectations, suggesting an effect placebo the smell of coffee.

not only that the smell of coffee helped people to perform better on badytical tasks, which was already interesting, "commented Professor Adriana Madzharov, principal investigator. "But they also thought they'd do better, and we showed that this expectation was at least partly responsible for their improved performance."

Madzharov now seeks to explore whether coffee smells could have a similar effect on other types of performance, such as verbal reasoning.

Coffee has already been found to also have many physical health benefits, including a reduced risk of heart disease, diabetes and dementia, with some even suggesting that it may even help us live longer.

Online in the Journal of Environmental Psychology. – AFP-Relaxnews