It’s not clear to me exactly what types of learning or memory cause the hippocampus to grow, even after reading this article. I don’t even think they have a clue whether there’s a training effect such that the added neurons make it generally easier to process new inputs for learning/memory—that is, they’re seeing a correlation and speculating that there’s causation in both directions.
However, I’m reminded that severe stress (see Sapolsky’s “Zebras”) causes the hippocampus to shrink (and the amygdala, which is apparently involved in fear, to grow). I drink a single shot of espresso daily, and I do feel alert/stressed at times (when the matter I’m thinking on doesn’t seem to merit such a reaction). I wonder if the feeling of stress is a reliable signal that the hippo-neurogen. is suffering.
In any case, I feel my failures to learn and remember as rapidly as I’d like are mostly caused by age and insufficient sleep. But since I’ve never found caffeine difficult to give up (in the doses I’ve used), I’ll definitely consider selectively cutting back (when I’m trying to free-associate, or learn a bunch of less-routine things).
It’s also possible that some of these effects are very difficult to demonstrate at moderate doses, or in humans as opposed to rats. It would be helpful to me if you could give your estimate of dose-effect from your reading of the science.
I wonder how much of the beneficial effects of coffee are exactly the effects you would get from stress. Stress here being the fight-or-flight response. The theory is that the body diverts resources to make sure you survive (presumably, to your muscles and your short-term memory and executive function) and away from long-term maintenance (reproductive function, immune system, long-term memory formation).
I’ve read somewhere that a component of sleepiness is modulated by amount of cortisol in the body. According to wikipedia, coffee stimulates production of cortisone. Maybe this is evolution adapting the fight or flight response to the circadian rhythm, which explains why they are related.
Perhaps in the case of diminished hippocampal neurogenesis it’s just from stress. And maybe the beneficial effects from coffee are too.
It’s not clear to me exactly what types of learning or memory cause the hippocampus to grow, even after reading this article. I don’t even think they have a clue whether there’s a training effect such that the added neurons make it generally easier to process new inputs for learning/memory—that is, they’re seeing a correlation and speculating that there’s causation in both directions.
However, I’m reminded that severe stress (see Sapolsky’s “Zebras”) causes the hippocampus to shrink (and the amygdala, which is apparently involved in fear, to grow). I drink a single shot of espresso daily, and I do feel alert/stressed at times (when the matter I’m thinking on doesn’t seem to merit such a reaction). I wonder if the feeling of stress is a reliable signal that the hippo-neurogen. is suffering.
In any case, I feel my failures to learn and remember as rapidly as I’d like are mostly caused by age and insufficient sleep. But since I’ve never found caffeine difficult to give up (in the doses I’ve used), I’ll definitely consider selectively cutting back (when I’m trying to free-associate, or learn a bunch of less-routine things).
It’s also possible that some of these effects are very difficult to demonstrate at moderate doses, or in humans as opposed to rats. It would be helpful to me if you could give your estimate of dose-effect from your reading of the science.
I wonder how much of the beneficial effects of coffee are exactly the effects you would get from stress. Stress here being the fight-or-flight response. The theory is that the body diverts resources to make sure you survive (presumably, to your muscles and your short-term memory and executive function) and away from long-term maintenance (reproductive function, immune system, long-term memory formation).
I’ve read somewhere that a component of sleepiness is modulated by amount of cortisol in the body. According to wikipedia, coffee stimulates production of cortisone. Maybe this is evolution adapting the fight or flight response to the circadian rhythm, which explains why they are related.
Perhaps in the case of diminished hippocampal neurogenesis it’s just from stress. And maybe the beneficial effects from coffee are too.