As the results show, the increase of caffeine caused the mouse to complete the obstacle course in a slower time than without any caffeine. What does this really mean? The caffeine had a detrimental effect on the mouse’s cognitive and motor skills. In humans, low amounts of caffeine can be very beneficial by increasing alertness, improving concentration, and boosting overall energy. However, high amounts of caffeine cause adverse reactions, such as anxiety, restlessness, insomnia, elevated heart rate, and irritability. Because the test subject had no prior exposure to caffeine, thus having no tolerance to the drug, the mouse was especially sensitive to caffeine. Meaning, the seemingly low dose caused the negative side effects that humans experience
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This drug most directly affects the neurotransmitter adenosine. Adenosine is a nervous system depressant, meaning it slows everything down and creates the crucial balance for the brain, allowing it to rest and recharge. Caffeine is a stimulant drug, meaning it activates the body and boosts neural activity. Caffeine has a very similar structure to adenosine. Because of this, caffeine is able to act like adenosine and bind at its receptors, thus inhibiting the effects of adenosine. In this way, caffeine is considered an antagonist drug, which is defined as “a drug that blocks or dampens a biological response by binding to a receptor.” Caffeine takes the place of adenosine, and stops the biological response of sleep. This is a desired effect, for example, to stay awake longer to complete a task, however, not allowing the brain its full time to recharge can cause detrimental side effects. Consequences include: anxiety, anxiety neurosis, psychosis, delirium, and anorexia nervosa. This can explain what happened in our experiment; the caffeine increased neural activity, thus reducing lethargy and inducing hyperactivity, and cause the anxious, jittery behavior of the mouse. The more caffeine administered, the worse the symptoms of anxiety and hyperactivity, which is why the average time of course complete steadily increased with each milligram of caffeine (IIOM, …show more content…
The mouse was subject to outside influences, such as varying amounts of daylight and interactions with human beings other than those training him. For example, the amount of sunlight that the mouse is exposed to could affect his level of consciousness because mice are nocturnal creatures. Furthermore, human interaction could expose the mouse to foreign substances and/or cause the subject to have an accelerated heart rate due to fear of safety. These variants could have caused the results of the experiment to become
This drug most directly affects the neurotransmitter adenosine. Adenosine is a nervous system depressant, meaning it slows everything down and creates the crucial balance for the brain, allowing it to rest and recharge. Caffeine is a stimulant drug, meaning it activates the body and boosts neural activity. Caffeine has a very similar structure to adenosine. Because of this, caffeine is able to act like adenosine and bind at its receptors, thus inhibiting the effects of adenosine. In this way, caffeine is considered an antagonist drug, which is defined as “a drug that blocks or dampens a biological response by binding to a receptor.” Caffeine takes the place of adenosine, and stops the biological response of sleep. This is a desired effect, for example, to stay awake longer to complete a task, however, not allowing the brain its full time to recharge can cause detrimental side effects. Consequences include: anxiety, anxiety neurosis, psychosis, delirium, and anorexia nervosa. This can explain what happened in our experiment; the caffeine increased neural activity, thus reducing lethargy and inducing hyperactivity, and cause the anxious, jittery behavior of the mouse. The more caffeine administered, the worse the symptoms of anxiety and hyperactivity, which is why the average time of course complete steadily increased with each milligram of caffeine (IIOM, …show more content…
The mouse was subject to outside influences, such as varying amounts of daylight and interactions with human beings other than those training him. For example, the amount of sunlight that the mouse is exposed to could affect his level of consciousness because mice are nocturnal creatures. Furthermore, human interaction could expose the mouse to foreign substances and/or cause the subject to have an accelerated heart rate due to fear of safety. These variants could have caused the results of the experiment to become