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

Maria Picó-Pérez; Ricardo Magalhães; Madalena Esteves; Rita Vieira; Teresa C Castanho; Liliana Amorim; Mafalda Sousa; Ana Coelho; Pedro S Moreira; Rodrigo A Cunha; Nuno Sousa

doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1176382

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

Front Behav Neurosci. 2023 Jun 28:17:1176382. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2023.1176382. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Maria Picó-Pérez^#^{1

2

3

4}, Ricardo Magalhães^#^{1

2}, Madalena Esteves^{1

2}, Rita Vieira^{1

2

3}, Teresa C Castanho^{1

2

3

5}, Liliana Amorim^{1

2

3

5}, Mafalda Sousa^{1

2

3}, Ana Coelho^{1

2}, Pedro S Moreira^{1

2

6}, Rodrigo A Cunha⁷, Nuno Sousa^{1

2

3

5}

Affiliations

¹ Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), School of Medicine, University of Minho, Campus de Gualtar, Braga, Portugal.
² ICVS/3B's - PT Government Associate Laboratory, Braga/Guimaraes, Portugal.
³ Clinical Academic Center - Braga, Braga, Portugal.
⁴ Departamento de Psicología Básica, Clínica y Psicobiología, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón de la Plana, Spain.
⁵ P5 Medical Center, Braga, Portugal.
⁶ Psychological Neuroscience Lab, CIPsi, School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal.
⁷ CNC-Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.

^# Contributed equally.

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.

Grants and funding

This study was funded by the Institute for the Scientific Information on Coffee (ISIC; ISIC_2017_NS). The lab was supported by the project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER000013 through the Northern Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER). RM, MP-P, and ME were supported by post-doctoral grants from the project ISIC_2017_NS. PM was supported by a fellowship grant from the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT; grant number PDE/BDE/113601/2015) from the PhD-iHES program. RV was supported by a research fellowship of the project funded by FCT (UMINHO/BI/340/2018). AC was supported by a scholarship from the project NORTE-08-5639-FSE-000041 (NORTE 2020; UMINHO/BD/51/2017). NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000039, supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and by National funds, through the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT)—project UIDB/50026/2020 and UIDP/50026/2020.