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Randomized trial · measured the question itself

Trial of one 1 g lion's mane dose found mixed results on thinking tasks

La Monica and colleagues · Nutrients · 2023

Original title: Acute Effects of Naturally Occurring Guayusa Tea and Nordic Lion's Mane Extracts on Cognitive Performance.

Under review. A person has not yet checked this summary against the paper. It is written from the PubMed abstract. Until a person checks it, search engines are asked not to list this page.

What the study found

Mixed

One 1 g dose of lion's mane improved attempts on Serial 7s, reaction time on N-Back and Go reaction time on Go/No-go (p ≤ 0.05). Guayusa improved more measures than lion's mane.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Randomized trial
Who or what was studied
Adults (number and age not given in abstract) tested on thinking tasks
What was tested
One dose of 1 g Nordic lion's mane, vs 650 mg guayusa extract, vs placebo, in a crossover design; tested 1 and 2 hours later
What it measured
The question itself: memory and thinking
Who has a stake
Company stake
Funded by Applied Food Sciences; one author reports funding and fees from supplement companies.
Journal
Nutrients, 2023
Source
PubMed record 38140277. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • ✓Randomized: people were put into groups by chance, so the groups start out alike.
  • ✓Compared with a placebo, a dummy treatment.
  • •The abstract does not say how many people took part.
  • ✓Measured the question itself: memory and thinking.
  • –Company stake: Funded by Applied Food Sciences; one author reports funding and fees from supplement companies.
  • •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

Where this study sits

Each dot is one on-topic paper on this question. Steps near the top answer the question more directly.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: memory and thinking

    4

    1 benefit, 3 mixed

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  4. Population studies

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  5. Blood levels and genes

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  6. Animals

    1

    1 no difference

↓ Weaker evidence

  • Points to benefit
  • Mixed
  • No difference
  • No direction
  • Points to harm

How it fits with the other research

The short answer to “Does lion's mane improve memory?”

Unclear. Only four trials, with mixed results.

Confidence: very low. Based on 6 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer

Of the other 3 papers on the same step: 1 benefit, 2 mixed. This one found mixed. It agrees with most of them.

  • Quoted in “What we found”: Only 14 papers exist on this question. Four are human trials of memory or thinking; the two that report size had 30 and 41 people.
  • Quoted in “What we found”: In two other trials, one dose of lion's mane (1.8 g or 1 g) made people faster on some thinking tasks but not on others.
  • Part of the finding “One dose: faster on some thinking tasks”.
  • Open item for a person: Saitsu Saitsu 2019 and La Monica La Monica 2023 abstracts give no number of people or ages; Saitsu gives no dose. Check full texts.
  • Open item for a person: La Monica La Monica 2023: unclear whether lion's mane gains were measured against placebo or against each person's starting score.

Other papers on the same step

See all 6 studies on this question

How this page was made

Label

First read of the abstract
Claude Sonnet
Independent second read
Claude Haiku
Differences settled
The reviewer corrected 5 fields after reading the abstract. Claude Opus 5.5.
Headline
Claude Sonnet, from the checked study record. A script checked its numbers and wording.
Numbers
Checked against the abstract by a script
“How much this study counts”
Fixed rules, the same for every study
Source check by a person
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