Question

I want to reach out and grab my cup of coffee. Name and describe the three steps involved in accomplishing this task. What brain region(s) are most closely associated with Step 2? Provide evidence that details how Step 2 appears to be accomplished by the brain.

Answer 1

It's all in the neuroscience of how coffee (and everything that surrounds it) affects your brain. There are three stages.

1. Anticipation

The moment you start thinking about you’re a cup of coffee, your endocrine system creates and releases dopamine, also known as the "anticipatory pleasure hormone”. You feel good even just knowing you'll soon be drinking your first cup.

2. Preparation

Because you associate coffee with pleasure, the actions you take that lead you to experience that pleasure create their own Pavlovian response. Environmental cues such as brewing your own coffee or driving to your favorite coffee shop release even more dopamine into your system.

Evidence for step-2:

Aroma:

Aromas can suddenly remind you of past experiences because they're powerful brain triggers. That's certainly true of coffee, which noted that "coffee aroma orchestrates the expression of more than a dozen genes and changes in protein expressions." In other words, "wake up and smell the coffee" is more than just a metaphor.

3. Drinking

Your body absorbs caffeine quickly, so it takes only a few minutes to reach your brain. Once there, it attaches itself to the part of your neurons that normally attract adenosine, the hormone that makes you sleepy. Since adenosine can't bond with your neurons, you feel alert, awake and more alive. Your endocrine system then reacts to the absence of adenosine by releasing glutamate, a neurotransmitter that increases your ability to learn and remember.

Right about the time you finish your cup of coffee, you have achieved a state of peak performance. This is in contrast to when you woke up, at which point your brain was full of adenosine, and groggy from sleep. It's this delta between where you were and where you are now that makes that first cup so powerful.

Subsequent cups, however, have diminishing returns. While they'll keep you awake, alert, and high-functioning, the subsequent cups are second helpings after a gourmet meal. Sure it's good, but it's just not going to have the same effect as the first taste.