Coffee consumption decreases the connectivity of the posterior Default Mode Network (DMN) at rest

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.

Keywords: coffee; connectomics; default mode network; executive control network; resting-state.

Figure 1

Results from ICA. For those clusters showing significant pre-post coffee intake connectivity differences, sagittal, coronal, and axial views (left) of the clusters, and box plots (right) representing the mean connectivity before and after are shown. The FWE-R TFCE corrected clusters are presented in red and overlaid on their corresponding networks in yellow.

Figure 2

Network of reduced functional connectivity (FC) after coffee consumption for a threshold of p < 5e-05. (A) Coronal, sagittal, and axial view of the networks, with connections color-coded from red to yellow according to the statistical strength of the effect. (B) Box plots representing the before and after coffee consumption average FC.