If your cognitive skills aren’t at their best, you may just need a stick of gum to boost your brain power. Research at the University of Northumbria and the Cognitive Research Unit in Reading, England, shows that the repetitive chewing motion positively influences thinking, memory, and other mental tasks.
In the experiment, 75 subjects underwent a 25-minute test of various types of memory. Those who had chewed real gum showed better performance throughout the test as compared to those who had not chewed gum or had only pretended to chew. The heart rate of gum chewers was slightly faster than in other groups.
Andrew Scholey of the University’s Human Cognitive Neuroscience Unit presented his team’s findings at the 2001 British Psychological Society’s annual conference in Blackpool. He explained that “the mild increase in heart rate may improve the delivery of oxygen and glucose to the brain, enough to improve cognitive function.”
Additionally, chewing gum induces a surge of insulin due to the mouth watering in anticipation of a meal. “It is known that there are insulin receptors in areas of the brain important for learning and memory,” Scholey said. Overall, he believes that “the results were extremely clear and specifically we found that chewing gum targeted memory.”
