Cortical arousal and memory modification in different study patterns and beverage consumption in university students

Abstract

The aims of the present research were: (i) to analyze the cortical arousal and memory modifications associated with different study patterns among university students; (ii) to analyze the effect of different beverage consumption on academic performance, cortical arousal, and memory performance of students. To achieve these aims, we analyzed cortical arousal, operative memory, study patterns, and drink consumption during the study within 84 volunteers’ university students from different academic fields before and after an individual study session at the library. We found that long study patterns (> 98.7 min) presented an increased cortical arousal in students without negatively affecting memory performance. These long study patterns also showed that a higher sugary drink consumption was not related to the academic performance of the students. Although most findings were statistically non-significant, the observed trends suggest that prolonged study duration may support cortical arousal without compromising memory, and that common stimulants such as sugary or caffeinated beverages, might not have a measurable impact in short study sessions. These preliminary results may inform future studies on optimizing study habits for cognitive performance.