So you get to work after a long commute and you're feeling a bit tired, you reach for a coffee and within seconds you feel more awake —how is the coffee affecting your brain?

當你歷經漫漫的通勤去工作，而感到疲累，你拿了一杯咖啡喝下肚後，馬上有精神多了；咖啡是如何影響你的大腦的?

Stay tuned to find out!

讓我們繼續看下去，別走開！

There's no doubt about it, drinking a coffee or any caffeinated drink when you feel tired will make you feel more alert but let's take a second to think about what coffee is.

無庸置疑地，當你感覺疲倦時，喝杯咖啡或任何含有咖啡因的飲料會讓你變得更機敏，不過讓我們來想一想咖啡到底何方神聖。

Coffee comes from the coffee plant which grows in many places but primarily Brazil, Vietnam and Colombia.

咖啡來自世界各地的咖啡樹，但主要來自巴西、越南和哥倫比亞。

The seeds, also called coffee beans, are packaged and shipped all over the world and are then brewed into your favorite coffee at your local coffee shop.

這些種籽，或稱為咖啡豆，經由分裝、載運到世界各地後，在你鄰家的咖啡店內，泡出你最愛的咖啡。

The types of coffee available are endless but no matter which you drink they will all make you feel more alert, because they contain caffeine.

咖啡種類不勝枚舉，不論你喝的是哪種咖啡，它們都能讓你清醒許多，因為它們含有咖啡因。

How does caffeine make you more alert?

但咖啡因是如何讓你清醒的呢？

It's all to do with the neuroscience—adenosine is an inhibitory neurotransmitter and so when it binds to receptors in the brain it reduces nerve activity and makes you sleepy.

這和神經科學息息相關。「腺苷」是一種會抑制神經傳遞的介質，當它和大腦的接受器交互作用時，會減少大腦的神經運作，而後導致你昏昏欲睡。

To the receptors in the brain, caffeine looks just like adenosine and so it can bind to those receptors too, but it doesn't reduce nerve activity, it just stops adenosine binding.

對大腦的接收器來說，咖啡因就像腺苷一樣，也會和那些接受器產生交互作用，不過它並非減緩神經活動，反而是停止了腺苷的交互作用。

Therefore the neurons aren't inhibited, they just speed up, which stops you feeling sleepy and instead makes you more alert and awake!

因此神經元並未受到抑制，反倒加速活動，使你想睡的感覺沒了且變得更機敏清醒！

So there you have it, next time you reach for a coffee to give you that buzz, you'll know how it affects your brain.

這下你懂了，下次你喝咖啡時，你就知道它如何影響你的大腦了。

Just make sure you don't drink too much as you might end up with a bad case of the caffeine jitters!

但你要記住，別過量飲用咖啡，因為你可能會有焦慮緊張的反應。

Subscribe to Soton Brain Hub for more videos to help explain the mysteries of the brain!

訂閱 Soton Brain Hub 的頻道。這裏有更多一解大腦中的疑雲的影片！