Morning coffee: placebo effect?

A study has estimated that 83% of French people drink coffee every day. It's widely believed that having a cup of coffee after waking up gives a boost of energy to face the day. Fact or fiction?

Caffeine is a molecule that stimulates the nervous system, naturally present in coffee, tea, chocolate, and cola-based soft drinks. It also boosts mood and concentration. However, excessive consumption is not recommended, as caffeine can cause headaches, stomach aches, nervousness and delayed sleep when consumed too late in the day.

A study recently published in Frontiers in Behavioral Neurosciences has clarified this question: does coffee after waking up have a real effect, or is this effect due to the experience of drinking coffee rather than the caffeine itself? Using MRI, the researchers showed that there were different results between taking caffeine and taking a cup of coffee. Among other things, drinking a cup of coffee stimulated regions involved in working memory and cognitive control, which was not the case with raw caffeine intake, even though the latter stimulated alertness. The scientists therefore hypothesized a placebo effect caused by the experience of drinking a cup of coffee.

This result may seem surprising, but it's worth pointing out that the study did not include a group drinking decaffeinated coffee, for example, which would doubtless enable the results to be interpreted more accurately.