In a study published previously in this journal (Wilkinson et al., 2002), the effect of chewing gum on cognitive functioning was examined. The results of this study indicated that chewing a piece of gum results in an improvement of working memory and of both immediate and delayed recall of words but not of attention. In the present study, memory and a variety of attentional functions of healthy...

Research is reviewed on the effects of chewing gum on stress, alertness and cognition (including findings from cognitive neuroscience). There is some evidence that chewing gum reduces chronic stress, while effects on acute stress have been less clear in an experimental context. A robust effect of gum chewing on subjective alertness has been observed. However, findings on chewing gum and cogniti...

We investigated whether change of emotion related to sourness during chewing causes higher brain functions by using mental arithmetic test. Subjects comprised 120 healthy individuals. The mental arithmetic test was performed under four conditions: chewing lemon-flavored gum (Standard gum, as a delicious gum); gum with 6 times the citric acid component of the Standard gum (Strong-sour gum, as an...

Recent research examined the effects of chewing gum on attention and reported a significant interaction of gum chewing with time. Using a crossover within-subject design, the present study examined the effect of gum chewing on sustained attention in healthy adults over a period of 30 min. The results revealed a significant main effect of time and a significant interaction between gum chewing an...

RATIONALE Recent research suggests that chewing gum may improve aspects of cognitive function and mood. There is also evidence suggesting that chewing gum reduces stress. It is important, therefore, to examine these two areas and to determine whether contextual factors (chewing habit, type of gum, and personality) modify such effects. OBJECTIVES The aims of the present study were: (i) to dete...