Green Tea Enhances Cognitive Function, New Evidence

Researchers have found new evidence that green tea extracts boost cognitive function.

 The Swiss study, led by researchers at University of Basel, highlights that one of the most popular beverages consumed worldwide and also available as a dietary supplement- Green Tea- is known to increase the brain's effective connectivity which further leads to improvement in cognitive performance.

Over the past 30 years a lot of research studies have centre on green tea that is famous for its powerful antioxidant and disease fighting properties. The green tea offers an inexhaustible list of benefits. It is a well known fact that green tea consumption is good for heart, prevents cancer and now scientists say it enhances brain power.

The current study led by Prof. Christoph Beglingr, University Hospital of Basel and Prof. Stefan Borgwardt from the Psychiatric University Clinics discovered that green tea extracts boost cognitive function by increasing the brain connectivity, the influence one brain area exerts over the other.  This especially was prominent in working memory.

For this study the researchers recruited healthy male volunteers. They were given soft drinks that contained several grams of green tea extract before asking them to solve a memory task. Next, the researchers analyzed the impact of this drink on the brain activity of the men with the help of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

The MRI revealed the increased connectivity between the parietal and the frontal cortex of the brain. These neuronal findings positively correlated with the improvement in task performance of the participants.

"Our findings suggest that green tea might increase the short-term synaptic plasticity of the brain," Borgwardt said in a statement.

This finding offers promising clinical implications for the treatment of cognitive impairments in dementia and other psychiatric disorders.

Studies earlier have found that the main ingredient of green tea helps lower the risk of alzheimer's, lowers cholesterol, helps in treating acne, carries cancer-fighting abilities, shrinks cancerous tumors, boost cell production and much more.

The finding was reported in the journal Psychopharmacology.