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Young people who consume more caffeine, mostly from soft drinks, sleep less and show small differences in how their brains are developing, according to a study led by researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London published in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging.

The researchers drew on data from 9,632 children aged 9 to 11 taking part in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, which follows the brain development and health of young people across the U.S. Each child said how many caffeinated drinks they usually had in a week, whether coffee, tea or soft drinks, with parents reporting how long the children usually sleep on average.

MRI scans then measured thickness and surface area of the cortex, the brain's folded outer layer, which plays a part in cognitive processing, decision-making, attention and emotions, among other important functions.

The children were then asked to report back on their mental health six and 18 months later, with the results showing that greater caffeine consumption is associated with lower surface area across the cortex, even after adjusting for household socioeconomic circumstances like parental educational attainment and income.

The pattern showed up in 22 separate regions, spanning all four lobes of the brain. These effects were largely driven by the consumption of soft drinks, which were the biggest source of caffeine in the study.

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