Coffee consumption decreases the connectivity of the posterior Default Mode Network (DMN) at rest
Maria Picó‐Pérez, Ricardo Magalhães, Madalena Esteves, Rita Vieira, Teresa Costa Castanho, Liliana Amorim, Mafalda Machado Sousa, Ana Coelho, Pedro Silva Moreira, Rodrigo A. Cunha, Nuno Sousa
Abstract
Habitual coffee consumers justify their life choices by arguing that they become more alert and increase motor and cognitive performance and efficiency; however, these subjective impressions still do not have a neurobiological correlation. Using functional connectivity approaches to study resting-state fMRI data in a group of habitual coffee drinkers, we herein show that coffee consumption decreased connectivity of the posterior default mode network (DMN) and between the somatosensory/motor networks and the prefrontal cortex, while the connectivity in nodes of the higher visual and the right executive control network (RECN) is increased after drinking coffee; data also show that caffeine intake only replicated the impact of coffee on the posterior DMN, thus disentangling the neurochemical effects of caffeine from the experience of having a coffee.