London: Coffee is good for the memory and may help ageing brains stay more alert, says researchers from the UK’s University of Birmingham.

Dr Martin Vreugdenhill said that research into drinking cofee, the most widely used psychoactive drug, has shown that it increases alertness and speeds up the mental processing of information.

It works by altering the brain’s electrical activity by boosting gamma rhythms associated with learning and memory. Coffee lessens the levels of a chemical, called adenosine, that blocks gamma rhythms in older brains.

According to Dr Vreugdenhill drinking coffee regularly can triple gamma rhythm activity. At the same time he highlighted that drinking too much coffee could have adverse effects on health.