Daily Coffee Habits May Affect Brain Plasticity and Learning

Re:Daily Coffee Habits May Affect Brain Plasticity and Learning by Mistletoe on Sunday November 26, 2023 @06:08AM (#38420752)

Well sometimes studies show coffee is good for your brain so I’m relieved to find this outcome because I don’t drink coffee and try to avoid caffeine daily.

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Re:Daily Coffee Habits May Affect Brain Plasticity and Learning by vjk800 on Sunday November 26, 2023 @06:59AM (#38420967)

Good and bad effects are not mutually exclusive. Coffee can, at the same time, be good for you on one metric and bad on another. The same for different time scales; coffee might be good for you on short-to-medium time scales, but bad on very long time scales.

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Re:Daily Coffee Habits May Affect Brain Plasticity and Learning by Qem on Sunday November 26, 2023 @07:38AM (#38421160)

Perhaps brain plasticity has its own downsides. Otherwise, why evolution would make us lose a lot of it once we reach adulthood? If there was no downsides, keeping a plastic brain for the whole life would be very adaptive. A gotcha must hide somewhere here.

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Re:Daily Coffee Habits May Affect Brain Plasticity and Learning by mrob on Sunday November 26, 2023 @08:01AM (#38421281)

Before the Industrial Revolution, people didn't see so much change in their daily lives. Perhaps the risk of learning something maladaptive outweighed the potential benefits back then.

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Re:Daily Coffee Habits May Affect Brain Plasticity and Learning by Qem on Sunday November 26, 2023 @08:33AM (#38421469)

Well, since agriculture fixed people in the same plot of land for their whole lives, sure. But before that there was nomadism. People moved from one area to another frequently. I think a lot of learning was necessary to map and adjust to new territories. So, I'm not so sure potential maladaptative learning explains everything.

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Re:Daily Coffee Habits May Affect Brain Plasticity and Learning by FirmwareBurner on Sunday November 26, 2023 @06:22AM (#38420809)

>Well sometimes studies show coffee is good for your brain

Why can't it be both good and bad for you? Water is also good for you but you can also die from drinking too much. Same with oxygen. Anything that's good for you in moderation, can kill you when consumed in excess.

The article doesn't say that any amount of coffee is bad for you, it says "chronic caffeine consumption is bad for you" which again, should be common sense. Chronic consumption of anything is generally bad for you.

It may very well be that light to moderate consumption could be beneficial at the same time as chronic being bad.

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Re:Daily Coffee Habits May Affect Brain Plasticity and Learning by Shaanie on Sunday November 26, 2023 @06:32AM (#38420850)

Chronic just means consistently for a long time, not the amount. There's lots of things for which chronic consumption is not bad (like pretty much everything considered healthy).

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Re:Daily Coffee Habits May Affect Brain Plasticity and Learning by FirmwareBurner on Sunday November 26, 2023 @06:36AM (#38420861)

>Chronic just means consistently for a long time, not the amount.

So if you drink 0.5mg of caffeine a day you're now a chronic user just as those who drink 300mg a day?

Sorry but that's bullshit. How can you draw any scientific conclusion without focusing on the most important aspect which is the dose of caffeine.

The word chronic alone doesn't mean jack here, when the daily does is all that matters.

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Re:Daily Coffee Habits May Affect Brain Plasticity and Learning by mnky9800n on Sunday November 26, 2023 @06:27AM (#38420827)

Water is good for you but you shouldn't breathe it. Air is good for you but you shouldn't eat it.

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Re:Daily Coffee Habits May Affect Brain Plasticity and Learning by FirmwareBurner on Sunday November 26, 2023 @06:33AM (#38420853)

You can also die of drinking too much water, not just drowning in it. Water intoxication is a thing. So is breathing in concentrated oxygen.

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Re:Daily Coffee Habits May Affect Brain Plasticity and Learning by mnky9800n on Sunday November 26, 2023 @08:00AM (#38421276)

I was agreeing with you

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