Abstract
Previous studies have shown that caffeine can improve performance on cognitive tasks in adults, but little work has been done in children and adolescents, who use caffeine less habitually. The primary aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that acute caffeine enhances performance on cognitive tasks in children and adolescents. Two secondary aims were to determine if these effects differ as a function of sex, puberty, and menstrual cycle phase and if these effects can be attributed to withdrawal reversal. Children were given a cognitive test battery using the Automated Neurological Assessment Metrics (ANAM) before and 60 min after administration of placebo or caffeine (1 or 2 mg/kg). The number of correct responses and throughput on the Stroop task were increased after caffeine administration. Caffeine also decreased reaction time on the Stroop and decreased the standard deviation of the reaction time on the Go/No-Go task. We further analyzed these data based on presence or absence of withdrawal symptoms and by usual caffeine use and found that the effects of caffeine remained. We found interactions between sex and caffeine for Go/No-Go task time and the standard deviation of the reaction time on the Stroop task and an interaction between caffeine dose and menstrual cycle phase on the standard deviation of the reaction time on the Go/No-Go task. These results are consistent with previous studies showing caffeine facilitates performance on some cognitive tasks and that these improvements are not related to reversal of withdrawal effects. This study is among the first to report sex differences in responses to caffeine on cognitive tasks in children and adolescents.