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The New York Times found a study that could mean good news to most adults. According to research published in Nature Neuroscience, “Caffeine enhanced performance 24 h after administration according to an inverted U-shaped dose-response curve; this effect was specific to consolidation and not retrieval. We conclude that caffeine enhanced consolidation of long-term memories in humans.”

What does that mean? The NYT reports: “Researchers had 73 men and women volunteers who did not habitually consume caffeine study pictures of flowers, musical instruments and other objects. After they were done, they gave 35 of them a pill containing 200-milligrams of caffeine — the amount found in one to two cups of coffee — and the rest an identical looking placebo. Neither the subjects nor the researchers knew until the study ended who took caffeine and who took an inert pill.”

“The next day they showed the volunteers more pictures, asking them if they were the same, different, or different but similar to the pictures they had seen the previous day.”

“Those who had caffeine pills were significantly better at identifying pictures that were different but similar to the ones they had seen the previous day. In other tests, the researchers found that less than 200 milligrams had no effect, and more did not further improve the participants’ scores.”

However, before you go and pour yourself another cup of joe, the piece reports that the study “does not prove that caffeine is a memory pill.” Says the study's author: “We don’t even know what the exact effective dose would be.”