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  • Warning: this video was made under the influence of caffeine!

  • So you get to work after a long commute and you're feeling a bit tired, you reach for a coffee and within seconds you feel more awakehow is the coffee affecting your brain?

  • Stay tuned to find out!

  • There's no doubt about it, drinking a coffee or any caffeinated drink when you feel tired will make you feel more alert but let's take a second to think about what coffee is.

  • Coffee comes from the coffee plant which grows in many places but primarily Brazil, Vietnam and Colombia.

  • The seeds, also called coffee beans, are packaged and shipped all over the world and are then brewed into your favorite coffee at your local coffee shop.

  • The types of coffee available are endless but no matter which you drink they will all make you feel more alert, because they contain caffeine.

  • How does caffeine make you more alert?

  • It's all to do with the neuroscienceadenosine is an inhibitory neurotransmitter and so when it binds to receptors in the brain it reduces nerve activity and makes you sleepy.

  • To the receptors in the brain, caffeine looks just like adenosine and so it can bind to those receptors too, but it doesn't reduce nerve activity, it just stops adenosine binding.

  • Therefore the neurons aren't inhibited, they just speed up, which stops you feeling sleepy and instead makes you more alert and awake!

  • So there you have it, next time you reach for a coffee to give you that buzz, you'll know how it affects your brain.

  • Just make sure you don't drink too much as you might end up with a bad case of the caffeine jitters!

  • Subscribe to Soton Brain Hub for more videos to help explain the mysteries of the brain!

Warning: this video was made under the influence of caffeine!

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