Limited evidence. Direction: No effect.
C LimitedShort-term only
Rubric condition met: Mixed results from small acute trials and two meta-analyses of combination products
Evidence on reaction time comes mostly from caffeine-plus-taurine combinations, so the grade carries the with-caffeine context (G8). A 2025 network meta-analysis of 12 studies found a faster reaction time with the combination than with caffeine or taurine alone, while a 2026 meta-analysis of 11 trials found very high heterogeneity and a prediction interval crossing no effect. Factorial trials that separated the ingredients found that caffeine, not taurine, drove the cognitive changes (n = 48) and that taurine tended to blunt caffeine's effect on one task (n = 19). The direction for taurine itself is therefore not consistent.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Giles 2012 | 2012 | RCT | 48 | result not recorded |
| Peacock 2013 | 2013 | crossover RCT | 19 | result not recorded |
| Deng 2025 | 2025 | meta-analysis | not recorded | result not recorded |
| He 2026 | 2026 | meta-analysis | 234 | result not recorded |
Peacock A, Martin FH, Carr A. Energy drink ingredients. Contribution of caffeine and taurine to performance outcomes Appetite, 2013. PMID 23313701
Giles GE, Mahoney CR, Brunyé TT. Differential cognitive effects of energy drink ingredients: caffeine, taurine, and glucose Pharmacol Biochem Behav, 2012. PMID 22819803
He B, Zhou C, Zeng Z. Effects of Caffeine-Taurine Co-Supplementation on Exercise Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Nutrients, 2026. PMID 42943005
Deng H, Wang L, Liu P. Caffeine and taurine: a systematic review and network meta-analysis of their individual and combined effects on physical capacity, cognitive function, and physiological markers J Int Soc Sports Nutr, 2025. PMID 41032459
Search (): taurine[ti] AND (cognit*[tiab] OR attention[tiab] OR memory[tiab] OR reaction time[tiab]) AND randomized controlled trial[pt] AND humans[mh]
