Coffee time: Caffeine improves reaction to moving targets
That morning coffee might be even more helpful than you think

Date:
December 1, 2021
Source:
University of Waterloo
Summary:
In the first study of its kind to explore caffeine's effects on
dynamic visual skills, researchers concluded that caffeine increases
alertness and detection accuracy for moving targets. Caffeine also
improved participants' reaction times.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
In the first study of its kind to explore caffeine's effects on dynamic
visual skills, researchers concluded that caffeine increases alertness
and detection accuracy for moving targets. Caffeine also improved
participants' reaction times.


==========================================================================
"A lot of what happens in our environment is moving -- like trying
to cross a busy intersection as a pedestrian or finding something
on a shelf as you're walking through the aisles of a grocery store,"
said Dr. Kristine Dalton of Waterloo's School of Optometry & Vision
Science. "Testing visual acuity under dynamic conditions can provide
more information about our functional performance in these scenarios than traditional static visual acuity measurements alone." Visual acuity, also known as clarity of vision or sharpness of vision, refers to a person's
ability to detect and recognize small details and can be measured under
static (stationary) or dynamic (moving) conditions. While both static and dynamic visual acuity provide important information about how we interact
with the world around us, dynamic visual acuity skills are especially
important in the many daily activities in which we, or objects around
us are moving.

"While we already know that caffeine increases the velocity of rapid-eye movements, we wanted to further investigate how exactly caffeine enhances visual processing and facilitates the detection of moving visual stimuli
by testing dynamic visual acuity," said co-author Beatri'z Redondo of
the University of Granada's Department of Optics.

On two separate days, half of the study's participants ingested a caffeine capsule (4mg/kg) while the other half ingested a placebo capsule. Using a computer-based test designed and validated at the University of Waterloo,
each participant's dynamic visual acuity skills were measured before
and 60 minutes after caffeine ingestion.

Researchers found that participants who had ingested the caffeine
capsules showed significantly greater accuracy and faster speed when identifying smaller moving stimuli, inferring caffeine positively
influences participants' stimulus processing and decision-making. Eye
movement velocity and contrast sensitivity, which are implicated in
dynamic visual acuity performance, were also sensitive to caffeine intake.

"Our findings show that caffeine consumption can actually be helpful
for a person's visual function by enhancing alertness and feelings of wakefulness," Dalton said. "This is especially true for those critical, everyday tasks, like driving, riding a bike or playing sports, that
require us to attend to detailed information in moving objects when
making decisions." The study, Effects of caffeine ingestion on dynamic
visual acuity, co-authored by Waterloo's School of Optometry & Vision
Science's Dalton, and the University of Granada's Redondo, Raimundo
Jime'nez, Rube'n Molina and Jesu's Vera, was recently published in the Psychopharmacology journal.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Waterloo. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Beatri'z Redondo, Raimundo Jime'nez, Rube'n Molina, Kristine Dalton,
Jesu's Vera. Effects of caffeine ingestion on dynamic visual
acuity: a placebo-controlled, double-blind, balanced-crossover
study in low caffeine consumers. Psychopharmacology, 2021; 238
(12): 3391 DOI: 10.1007/s00213-021-05953-1 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/12/211201085155.htm

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