Comparison of Caffeine Intake and Brain Training Effect on Performance Intelligence

Abstract

Background: Intelligence is the ability to comprehend complex ideas and reasoning. Caffeine is a psychoactive substance that is known to possess an effect on improving cognitive function, memory, and attention. Brain training is a digital training process which holds the purpose of enhancing cognitive function.Objective: This study aimed to compare the effect of caffeine and brain training on performance intelligence.Methods: This research is an experimental study with two groups pre test and post test design. The research sample was the college students of Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Diponegoro (n=42) aged between 18-22 years old, which then categorized into: the caffeine group (n=21) which received 50 ml once daily of caffeinated beverage for two weeks, and brain training group (n=21) which received 30-minute-session of NeuroNationTM brain training every day for two weeks. Performance intelligence was measured before and after treatment by using The Raven Progressive Matrices test. The statistical analysis used was The Mann-Whitney test and The Wilcoxon test.Results: The average score of performance intelligence on the group caffeine treatment increased from 48,81±9,30 to 55,90±2,95 (p<0,001). In brain training group, increased from 54,95±1,91 to 57,29±1,68 (p<0,001). The two groups were tested for Mann-Whitney Test and it was found that the caffeine group's performance intelligence score was significantly higher than brain training (p = 0.005).Conclusion: There was a significantly higher increase performance intelligence score shown in the caffeine group rather than in the brain training group.Keywords: brain training, caffeine, NeuroNationTM, performance intelligence, Raven Progressive Matrices test