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Dose-response effect of L-theanine on psychomotor speed, sustained attention, and inhibitory control: a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study.

  • 2022-10-20
  • Nutritional neuroscience 26(11)
    • Tharaka L Dassanayake
    • Devasmitha Wijesundara
    • Chanaka N Kahathuduwa
    • Vajira S Weerasinghe

Study Design

Type
Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT)
Population
32 healthy young adults
Methods
double-blind, placebo-controlled, counterbalanced, four-way crossover study, compared the effects of three doses of L-theanine (100, 200 and 400 mg) with a placebo (distilled water), administered before and 50 min after dosing, on three attentional tasks from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery
Blinding
Double-blind
Duration
50 min after dosing

Background

L-theanine is a non-protein-forming amino acid found in tea. Previous research shows high doses (100-400 mg) of L-theanine enhances attention, mainly by reducing mind wandering and distracter processing. We hypothesized that these indirect mechanisms could significantly improve the performance of low-level attentional tasks, whereas the relative contribution could be less in complex attentional tasks that require active, higher-order processing of target stimuli.

Methods

To test this hypothesis, we conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled, counterbalanced, four-way crossover study in 32 healthy young adults, where we compared the effects of three doses of L-theanine (100, 200 and 400 mg) with a placebo (distilled water), administered before and 50 min after dosing, on three attentional tasks from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery [viz. Reaction Time (RTI)-visuomotor speed, Rapid Visual Information Processing (RVP)-sustained attention, and Stop Signal Task (SST)-inhibitory control]. Results were analyzed in dose × time repeated measures ANOVA models, with subsequent pairwise comparisons.

Results

Active doses significantly improved reaction times in the RTI (100-200 mg) and RVP (200-400 mg) tasks from baseline (p < 0.05), but once controlled for the change-from-baseline caused by placebo, only the RTI simple reaction times showed significant improvements, following 100 mg (Δ = 16.3 ms, p = 0.009) and 200 mg (Δ = 16.9 ms, p = 0.009) of L-theanine.

Conclusions

Consistent with our hypothesis, these findings suggest that L-theanine significantly improves attention in simple visuomotor tasks, but not in more complex sustained attention tasks, or executive control tasks that require top-down inhibition of pre-active responses.

Research Insights

  • L-Theanine→Improved Inhibitory Control

    these findings suggest that L-theanine significantly improves attention in simple visuomotor tasks, but not in more complex sustained attention tasks, or executive control tasks that require top-down inhibition of pre-active responses.

    Effect
    Neutral
    Effect size
    Small
    Dose
    400 mg
  • L-Theanine→Improved Sustained Attention

    Active doses significantly improved reaction times in the RTI (100-200 mg) and RVP (200-400 mg) tasks from baseline (p < 0.05), but once controlled for the change-from-baseline caused by placebo, only the RTI simple reaction times showed significant improvements

    Effect
    Neutral
    Effect size
    Small
    Dose
    400 mg
  • L-Theanine→Improved Visuomotor Speed

    only the RTI simple reaction times showed significant improvements, following 100 mg (Δ = 16.3 ms, p = 0.009) and 200 mg (Δ = 16.9 ms, p = 0.009) of L-theanine.

    Effect
    Neutral
    Effect size
    Small
    Dose
    400 mg
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