Chew gum and beat exams

Debbie Cohen Manchester

Chewing gum, a pet hate of lecturers, could improve your chances of exam success, according to a study at Northumbria University. Dr Andrew Scholey and Lucy Wilkinson have found that chewing gum while performing memory tests increases long and short term memory by up to 35%.

Computerised memory tests measured participants' attention span, response rates, and both long and short term memory while they were either chewing gum, miming the action, or doing nothing.

Those who chewed gum outperformed the non-chewers and mimers, most notably during tests to recall word lists. Immediately after hearing the list gum chewers remembered eight or nine words, on average; the other participants remembered only six or seven.

Long term memory was also better in gum chewers, who could recall an average of seven words after 25 minutes compared to the non-chewers' five.

Scholey said, "We found a very clear pattern of improved memory when gum was chewed. We think it is the effect of chewing which causes this, rather than anything in the gum itself."

So far, no explanation has been found for the increase in "brain power," but Scholey believes that there are two possible explanations.

The results of the study showed that the heart rate of gum chewers increased by five or six beats per minute. According to Scholey, the increase in heart rate increases blood flow and, therefore, oxygen and glucose delivery to the brain.

The other explanation relates to increased insulin production. "Chewing could stimulate insulin production. Insulin receptors are fairly densely packed into the hippocampus area of the brain, which is the area responsible for memory," Scholey said. "This would increase glucose uptake in that area of the brain."



studentBMJ 2002;10:131-170 May ISSN 0966-6494