For ages, Chewing gum has been used as a favorite pastime activity that has been all over the world. For example, prehistoric men and women chewed tree lumps for enjoyment, also, during the ancient times the Greeks used to eat resin to freshen their breath and clean their teeth while the Maya Indians utilized gummed chicklet (Chen et al, 2015). For instance, gum is an unlikely object of scientific research which turns out to possess qualities that many people would never believe. Further, gum has been studied for its beneficial impacts on of the memory, alertness, anxiety reduction and also the process of learning. Many people chew gum with the aim of relieving stress while others believe that it is essential in boosting the levels of concentration. As a result, neuroscientists have engaged in spirited debates about whether chewing Gum might improve memory, attention and other aspects of cognition. This aim of this research paper is to highlight the impacts of chewing gum on the brain.
In nineteen thirty nine, Hollingsworth discovered that eating gum improved the performance of the brain. Till recently, there has been no researches conducted regarding the effects of chewing gum. It is surprising that most people chew in order to improve concentration or when they feel they are under pressure. In current ages, there has been a deliberation about the impacts of sap chewing on the brain. Some organized experiments have been conducted to examine the impacts of gum on the features of remembrance and consideration in fit young children and found at that chewing gum improves cognition. Due to the positive results, there has been eagerness among scientists regarding this significant effect of gum on perception. Further, it has been assumed that gum chewing improves cognition through increased discharge of insulin and altered configuration of regional cerebral flow of blood and particularly the fronto-temporal fragment of the mind (Lin, 2017). Also, these assumptions are consistent with the findings of neuroscientists who have revealed that gum chewing is associated with the increase of neuronal activity in the sensory motor cortex, thalamus, insula, prefrontal cortex and the supplementary motor area (Lin, 2017).
Impacts of Gum Chewing on Instantaneous and Delayed Remembrance
Delayed recall refers to the reproduction of information after a prolonged period while instant memory refers to the propagation of info after a designated period (Jiang et al, 2015). Word recall was among the first studies to be conducted regarding the impacts of chewing gum on the brain. During the investigation, Wilkinson and his associates discovered that eating a portion of sugar-free adhesive lead to t a noteworthy improvement of both the delayed and immediate remembrance of learned words. Further, Stephen and Tunney who is researcher later confirmed their finding as they were studying the impact of glucose on the memory. Also, Tucha and his fellow scientists experimented with the aim of finding the effects of the attention and even the delayed and immediate memory (Lin, 2017). However, their research did not realize any advantages. Similarly, Onyper and his associates experimented with the impact of gum munching on the long-term memory and discovered positive results (Jiang et al, 2015). However, the results were positive if the participants chewed gum prior the test which was presented.
Disadvantageous consequences of gum eating were reported by Kozlov and his coworkers after they conducted a study and established that gum chewing damages the short term memory. Through modifying several variables within their experiment, these scientists could replicate their findings and also show the disadvantageous consequences of Gum mastication was self-determining of the material used in the valuation.
Impacts of Gum Chewing on Attention
Attention is a serious capability which is vital for a variety of purposes performed daily comprising of emotional, mental and also the perceptual-motor. Further, the attention coordination guides behavior agreeing to time-based and altitudinal characteristics since the amount of info which can be processed instantaneously is limited (Ikeda" Miyamoto, 2018). Several current theories have defined attention as a multidimensional concept which contains components such as alertness which is farther subdivided into tonic and phasic alertness. Also, there are other kinds of care such as divided attention, selective attention and also shifting attention. The ability to withstand attention over a long duration enables an individual to direct devotion to one or extra sources for a relatively extended period. A beneficial impact of chewing gum was observed on sustain. The process of munching gum countered the weakening of attentional responsibilities over a period which is deliberated as standard in continuous responsibilities necessitating devotion. Conversely, a research conducted by Kohler and his colleagues revealed that gum chewing had adverse effects on the vigilance attention for it caused sleep deprivation (Jiang et al, 2015).
An experiment conducted by Tucker and his colleagues on both healthy children and also children confirmed that chewing gum had adverse effects on the Vigilance attention. Further, a research conducted by roast and fellow scientists revealed that gum chewing did not affect the selective attention or instead concentration. An advantageous effect on the particular attention was noted by an experiment conducted by Smith too. Moreover, a study by Stephen and Tunney recorded and advancement in the selective attention which was induced by gum chewing. Further, Tucha and his colleagues surveyed the divided care, but they did not discover any effects caused by gum chewing (Jiang et al, 2015). By the studies conducted these researchers, it is possible for one to accept that munching gum while performing a task might weaken routine at early stages but increase yield at later phases.
Impacts of Gum chewing on Executive Functions of the Brain
Executive function is a collective term used to define higher features of the mind which include scheduling and problem resolving, attentional controller, mental flexibility and also the working remembrance (Ireland et al, 2016).Working recollection is the capability to accumulate and operate info which is compulsory to manage essential difficult cognitive activities. Although several studies revealed the beneficial effects of the working memory, a research conducted by Smith showed that gum munching lead to in a weakened presentation on a vocal working task remembrance. Smith did two more studies which revealed that the spatial memory is not impacted by gum munching in any way (Ireland et al, 2016). Research on the oral eloquence roles were unsuccessful to disclose any consequences of chewing gum on both the philological and semantic oral eloquence. The mental process of reasoning allows people proceed beyond info provided and produce assumptions from norms, data and evidence. In two types of research conducted, methods of thinking were applied. Though, there were no consequences of gum munching discovered. A study by Torney and colleagues realized no impacts of gum eating on the mental elasticity.
Impacts of gum chewing on the spatial skills of the brain
Spatial power is a term used to refer to specific abilities of the mind such as spatial orientation, perceptions of spatial relations, spatial imagination and mental spatial manipulation. Research conducted by Nader and his colleagues with the aim of measuring features of spatial perceptions and three-dimensional vision but they did not discover any effects of gum eating on these skills(Inamochi et al, 2017) Though, when the mean score was measured in these studies realized a poor performance when the individuals chewed gum.
Consequences of Gum eating on the Intellectual functioning
An experiment conducted by Smith regarding the impacts of gum eating on the IQ revealed that chewing gum resulted in improved performance in intelligence scores (Otsuka, 2017). Although two studies carried out showed that chewing gum had no impact on the mathematical skills of children, Johnston and colleagues conducted an experiment that revealed that chewing gum during homework time and class hours significantly improved the math scores and abilities amongst young Adolescents in the age of fourteen. Further, Smith conducted which required partakers to choose whether declarations were correct or untrue to find out the impacts of gum eating on recovery of info from the overall facts. The data collected revealed that gum chewing resulted into reduced accurateness and also swiftness. Regarding verbal comprehension, Rost and his fellow scientists discovered that chewing gum did not affect the ability of children to understand word meaning (Otsuka, 2017). For instance, there were no consequences of gum munching found on the aspect of verbal understanding.
Impacts of gum on brain imaging
Research conducted by Takada and Miyamoto in two thousand and four revealed that chewing of gum affected the prefrontal part of the brain. During his study, he compared the differences when chewing gum and when the jaws were moving without any gum where compared to the differences between chewing gum and rest. The analysis consequently indicated the co-activation of the parietal cortices. Research conducted by Momose also revealed that gum chewing increased the cerebral flow of blood in the primary motor areas, supplementary motor areas, striatum and also the cerebrum. Also, he discovered that chewing of flavorless gum caused and increased the activation of the corresponding motor region and even the cerebellum. The research also indicated the activation of the thalamus and the sensorimotor cortex. Other analysis concerning the imaging of the brain included the performance of the cognitive responsibilities
Possible mechanisms of chewing gum on brain activities
P300 which is a component of EEG is often linked with classification and identification of stimuli, and its latency has been connected with the speed of encoding stimuli. Research conducted by Nagaga and Kagigi revealed that the peak latency of P300 is reduced after chewing gum and the study had consistent results as those of Smith's investigation concerning gum chewing and encoding of stimuli (Otsuka, 2017). The finding that chewing gum activates the hippocampus indicates that it chewing gum boosts memory. Additionally, it is possible that eating gum might affect stress levels through the neurotransmission effects. A study conducted revealed that increased activity in the ventral prefrontal cortex results in the heightened activity in the serotonergic neurons (Kubo et al, 2015).
Impacts of Chewing Gum on stress
Stress is a term used to describe the response people give to a variety of situations. Though chewing gum may have nothing or little to do with a person's disclosure to stress causing situations, it might decrease the levels of stress experienced through weakening the level of effect related with these stress causing activities (Konar et al, 2016). For instance, researchers carried out have revealed that chewing gum reportedly reduces naturally occurring stress when the gum is chewed over an extended period. Smith researched workers who did not eat gum at work which explained themselves as extremely stressed as compared to those works who chewed gum. Chewing of gum might ameliorate strong chronic stress and also reduce the levels of chronic stress. Nevertheless, research regarding the relationship of pressure to chewing was conducted by Arlberg (Otsuka, 2017). He discovered that bruxism was highly associated with stress. For example, gnashing of teeth clenching, bracing and also par functional teeth grinding. However, the studies are not sufficient enough since they only research on chronic stress which occurs in everyday life without considering the short-term importance.
Conclusion
The several types of research conducted by the scientists revealed that chewing of Gum chewing gum and improve certain aspects of the brain functions such as memory retention and both administrative and intellectual purposes. However, there has to be an emphasis that munching gum during mental responsibilities can harmfully distress task presentation. However, several researches exposed no effects of gum eating on the brain and therefore it is possible to conclude that the replications of gum chewing either positive or negative have been proven very problematic. The heftiness of stated conclusions on gum eating on the brain is however highly questionable. It would be interesting to find out why the outcomes of the study differ since numerous studies have applied similar procedures and designs in their tests. Since chewing gum improves cognitive abilities under certain circumstances, it would be ideal if studies to be conducted in the future would identify these specific conditions, factors and circumstances. The studies conducted reveal that eating gum improves alertness, also there are no significant impacts of munching gum which were observed in the memory task. Evidently, according to the studies the intellectual tasks were improved. For instance, the research indicate that further research on the alerting issues of eating gum and possible improved test performance in these situations.
References
Chen, H., Iinuma, M., Onozuka, M., " Kubo, K. Y. (2015). Chewing maintains hippocampus-dependent cognitive function. International journal of medical sciences, 12(6), 502
Ikeda, A., Miyamoto, J. J., Usui, N., Taira, M., " Moriyama, K. (2018). Chewing Stimulation Reduces Appetite Ratings and Attentional Bias toward Visual Food Stimuli in Healthy-Weight Individuals. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 99.
Inamochi, Y., Fueki, K., Usui, N., Taira, M., " Wakabayashi, N. (2017). Adaptive change in chewing‐related brain activity while wearing a palatal plate: An fMRI study. Journal of oral rehabilitation.
Ireland, A. J., Ellis, P., Jordan, A., Bradley, R., Ewings, P., Atack, N. E., ... " Wenger, N. (2016). Comparative assessment of chewing gum and ibuprofen in the management of orthodontic pain with fixed appliances: A pragmatic multicenter randomized controlled trial. American Journal of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, 150(2), 220-227.
Jiang, H., Liu, H., Liu, G., Jin, Z., Wang, L., Ma, J., " Li, H. (2015). Analysis of brain activity involved in chewing‐side preference during chewing: an fMRI study. Journal of oral rehabilitation, 42(1), 27-33.
Kawakami, Y., Takeda, T., Konno, M., Suzuki, Y., Kawano, Y., Ozawa, T., ... " Sakatani, K. (2017). Relationships Between Gum Chewing and Stroop Test: A Pilot Study. In Oxygen Transport to Tissue XXXIX (pp. 221-226). Springer, Cham
Konar, N., Palabiyik, I., Toker, O. S., " Sagdic, O. (2016). Chewing gum: Production, quality parameters and opportunities for delivering bioactive compounds. Trends in Food Science " Technology, 55, 29-38.
Kubo, K. Y., Chen, H., Zhou, X., Liu, J. H., " Darbin, O. (2015). Chewing, stress-related diseases, and brain function. BioMed research international, 2015
Lin, C. S., Wu, C. Y., Wu, S. Y., Lin, H. H., Cheng, D. H., " Lo, W. L. (2017). Age-related difference in functional brain connectivity of mastication. Frontiers in aging neuroscience, 9, 82.
Otsuka, T., Sasaguri, K., Hayashi, Y., Yamada, K., Muranaka, H., Takakura, Y., ... " Kawata, T. (2017). Experimental occlusal interference on brain activation during gum chewing. Biomedical Research, 28(1).
Park, E., Edirisinghe, I., Inui, T., Kergoat, S., Kelley, M., " Burton-Freeman, B. (2016). Short-term effects of chewing gum on satiety and afternoon snack intake in healthy weight and obese women. Physiology " behavior, 159, 64-71.
Smith, N., Miquel-Kergoat, S., " Thuret, S. (2015). The impact of mastication on cognition: evidence for intervention and the role of adult hippocampal neurogenesis. Nutrition and Aging, 3(2-4), 115-123
Wessel, S. W., van der Mei, H. C., Slomp, A. M., van de Belt-Gritter, B., Maitra, A., Dodds, M. W., " Busscher, H. J. (2016). Magnolia bark extract increases oral bacterial cell surface hydrophobicity and improves self-perceived breath freshness when added to chewing gum. Journal of Functional Foods, 25, 367-374.
