A new study has discovered that chewing gum can improve thinking and alertness. Regular chewers benefit from increased levels of alertness, a boost in thinking power and enjoy reaction times up to 10 per cent faster, say scientists from the National Institute of Radiological Sciences in Japan in the journal Brain and Cognition. They said the boost in brain power could be due to temporary improvement in blood flow to the brain.
“Our results suggest that chewing induced an increase in the arousal level and alertness in addition to an effect on motor control and, as a consequence, these effects could lead to improvements in cognitive performance.” Up to eight areas of the brain were affected by chewing, they added.
Volunteers’ brains were scanned as they carried out tasks while chewing and not; they then had to press a button with their right or left thumb in direct response to the direction of an arrow on a screen. Those not chewing took 545 milliseconds to react, whereas those chewing took just 493 milliseconds.
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