Can we ‘chew’ back memories?
Chomping on a stick of gum may increase mental alertness and memory by 10% because it stimulates blood flow and increases insulin levels. In one study, volunteers were grouped in flavourless gum chewers and non chewers. Brains were then scanned to observe any brain activity alterations.
Chomping on a stick of gum may increase mental alertness and memory by 10% because it stimulates blood flow and increases insulin levels.
In one study, volunteers were grouped in flavourless gum chewers and non chewers. Brains were then scanned to observe any brain activity alterations. Subjects were instructed to undergo cognitive exams, varying in degrees of complexity, during a 30 minute test.
The point of the experiment was the measure reaction times. Results showed non chewers were milliseconds slower in their responses. The brain scans showed the regions most active during chewing were those involved with movement and attention.
However, contradictory studies suggest chewing gum has little to no effect on heightening cerebral response, and potentially imposes negative consequence on short-term memory.
Experiments executed by the School of Psychology Department at Cardiff University, in the UK, were broken down into a series of tests.
Experiment one showed that chewing gum reduced serial recall. Serial recall is an aspect of memory relating to the accessing of information retained in a serial learning task.
In this case subjects were unable to recall listed letters. Chewing impaired identifying match tasks that require retention and recall of listed items.
Experiment two indicated gum chewing disrupted vocal articulatory planning. Articulatory planning is the action of coordinating complex tongue and mouth movements in order to produce sound which is required for order retention.
The third experiment demonstrated repetitive manual tapping produced a similar impairment to that of chewing gum.
A similar study evaluating the impact of flavourless gum and mint flavoured gum showed no context dependent memory effect found with either.
These studies indicate the memory benefit, if any, is insufficiently negligible.
