When Chewing Gum Boosted Memory
Rea,
With all the tests you take at school, have you ever wondered if there are simple tricks that could help your brain work better? Scientists have found some pretty unusual ones over the years, and one of the most surprising discoveries came from a university in England, where researchers found that something as simple as chewing gum could actually help people remember things better.
In 2002, scientists at the University of Northumbria wanted to understand if common activities affect how well our brains work. Memory can be tricky - sometimes we remember things easily, other times information seems to slip away. The researchers decided to test something most teachers would never allow in class - chewing gum during a test.
They gathered 75 adults and divided them into three groups. One group chewed sugar-free gum during memory tests. A second group made chewing motions with their mouths but didn’t have any gum (called “sham chewing”). The third group did nothing special. All three groups took computerized memory tests to see how well they could recall words and information.
The results were clear: the gum chewers remembered more words. What’s really interesting is that the people who just pretended to chew didn’t get the same benefit - it was something about the actual gum that made the difference. The researchers measured heart rates and found they increased during chewing, which might help explain the effect.
Dr. Andrew Scholey, who led the study, had another theory too. He thought that chewing might trigger the release of insulin in the body. Insulin is normally released when we’re about to eat food, but our brains also have receptors for insulin, especially in the hippocampus - the part of our brain crucial for memory.
The scientists also discovered something unexpected: chewing gum didn’t help people concentrate better. It only improved their ability to remember things. This means it might be helpful for memorizing vocabulary words or history dates, but not necessarily for understanding complex math problems.
Since this study, some schools have started allowing gum during tests. The technique doesn’t work for everyone, but it’s easy enough to try. The next time you’re studying for a vocabulary test or trying to remember important facts, a piece of sugar-free gum might be a helpful study buddy.
Your brain is like a complex machine with many different switches and buttons. Sometimes the most ordinary things - like chewing gum - can flip switches we never knew existed. The more we learn about how our brains work, the better we can help them perform at their best.
Love, Abba
P.S. If you want to try this technique, remember two things: sugar-free gum works best (sugar can actually make concentration worse), and it only helps with memory - not with understanding new concepts. And of course, only try it if your teacher allows gum in class!
