Effect of caffeine on standing balance during perceptual-cognitive tasks

Abstract

Previous research has not identified consistent, robust effects of caffeine on standing body posture in healthy adults. We evaluated standing balance performance in healthy adults without caffeine, and after ingestion of caffeine. During balance testing, the eyes either were open or closed. In addition, participants performed a variety of perceptual-cognitive tasks during balance testing. Consistent with previous studies, we found no statistically significant main effects of caffeine on balance performance. However, we found statistically significant improvements in balance performance in some individual experimental conditions. Our results, together with those of previous studies, suggest that caffeine can exert subtle effects on balance performance in relation to specific perceptual-cognitive conditions.