r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Mar 03 '25

Neuroscience Chewing different materials affects the brain and a new study found that chewing on wood (wooden tongue depressors), compared to chewing gum, led to a significant increase in a natural brain antioxidant called glutathione, and better performance on memory tasks.

https://www.psypost.org/chewing-wood-may-boost-memory-and-brain-antioxidants-study-finds/
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u/mvea Professor | Medicine Mar 03 '25

I’ve linked to the news release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/systems-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnsys.2024.1489919/full

From the linked article:

Chewing on moderately hard foods, like wood, might do more than just break down your lunch; new research suggests it could actually boost brainpower by increasing levels of a natural antioxidant, which in turn may improve memory. A recent study published in Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience explored how chewing different materials affects the brain and found that chewing on wood, compared to chewing gum, led to a significant increase in a brain antioxidant called glutathione.

After analyzing the data, the researchers found some interesting results. First, they looked at the glutathione levels in the anterior cingulate cortex before and after chewing. In the group that chewed wood, they observed a significant increase in glutathione levels after chewing compared to before. This means that chewing wood seemed to boost the amount of this important antioxidant in that brain region.

However, in the gum-chewing group, there was no significant change in glutathione levels after chewing. While there wasn’t a statistically significant difference in the change in glutathione levels between the gum and wood groups directly, the trend was clearly towards a greater increase in the wood-chewing group.

Next, the researchers examined the relationship between changes in glutathione levels and performance on the cognitive tests. They found that in the wood-chewing group, the increase in glutathione levels was positively related to scores on immediate memory and story memory tests. This means that participants who showed a larger increase in glutathione after chewing wood also tended to perform better on memory tasks.

Interestingly, this relationship was not found in the gum-chewing group. There was no link between changes in glutathione and memory performance for those who chewed gum. In essence, chewing wood seemed to both increase brain antioxidant levels and improve certain aspects of memory, and these two changes appeared to be connected.

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u/[deleted] Mar 03 '25

[deleted]

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u/mycofirsttime Mar 03 '25

My pencils and pens were absolutely WRECKED growing up. My nails. Straws. Lollipop sticks. All wrecked.

Not sure what changed once i hit my mid-20s, I don’t chew like that nearly as much. Interesting that it has a positive effect on the brain rather than just being an impulse problem.

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u/[deleted] Mar 03 '25

I used to chew my wooden pencils in school too. I didn’t realize I was helping myself get better grades.

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u/Lexinoz Mar 03 '25

It's a self stimming/calming method that many do. You were just acting on instinct.
The worse part is when grown ups don't know the logic behind this and force you to stop, worsening your grades and setting you on a downward spiral of school work.

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u/[deleted] Mar 03 '25

Yeah my teachers always stopped me from doing that or doodling too, which apparently also helps with learning too.

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u/privacyplease27 Mar 03 '25

I believe doodling can also help with concentration.

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u/JonatasA Mar 04 '25

I was forced to write in cursive. Curse that.

 

No wonder my hand writing was so bad.

 

It got better after I left school. The irony.

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u/eddgreat9 Mar 03 '25

Also, stimming is in response to the wiring of ADHD brains which lack the proper balance of the hormone dopamine. Dopamine is needed to focus, perform routine tasks, emotion regulation. Stimming (and chewing as it can be a form of stimming for some) is essentially the brains process of attempting to properly produce the correct dopamine balance in your brain to focus on that thought or task your doing.

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u/MutantCreature Mar 03 '25

I mean it's still not a good idea to chew on stuff that isn't intended to be chewed on. Ingesting paint, plastic, and damaging your teeth on hard materials (ie metal clips or eraser holders) is not good, if anything maybe offering a safer alternative would be a better response than stopping it entirely but that could be hard to implement.

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u/fuchsgesicht Mar 03 '25

i would chew mine until they'd split.

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u/things_U_choose_2_b Mar 03 '25

There's just something really oddly satisfying about sinking your molars into a pencil!

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u/IamGabyGroot Mar 03 '25

You probably replaced it with something else. For me it was lists. Once I began to work, lists became my wood chewing.

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u/mycofirsttime Mar 03 '25

Smoking cigarettes for dopamine idk

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u/dinoduckasaur Mar 03 '25

Born to be a beaver, forced to write emails

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u/wildbergamont Mar 03 '25

I have adhd, generally well treated, but I cannot stop chewing my nails when I think. If I'm chewing, I'm thinking real good.

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u/vapenutz Mar 03 '25

I can't stop biting off stuff, smoking, etc

It's literally a mouth thing, I can't focus unless I'm doing something with my mouth

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u/FeedTheADHD Mar 03 '25

I joke all the time that my fingernails are the currency I exchange for productivity.

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u/IronicAlgorithm Mar 03 '25 edited Mar 03 '25

Also, Long Covid dysautonomia, NAC, a precursor molecule to glutathione seems to help with the condition (helps me).

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u/ScienceElectronic381 Mar 03 '25

That's interesting. And NAC is also known to help trichotillomania/dermatillomania. I wonder if plucking skin or hair also increases glutathione similar to chewing.

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u/GrenadeAnaconda Mar 03 '25

And the part of the brain mentioned, the anterior cingulate context, is heavily impacted in ADHD.

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u/NeutralNeutrall Mar 03 '25

Maybe a part in why NAC helps, it's supposed to raise glutathione I'm pretty sure

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u/fascinatedobserver Mar 03 '25

Yep. My mouth was raw in school from chewing Bic pen tops.

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u/[deleted] Mar 03 '25

[deleted]

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u/fascinatedobserver Mar 03 '25

Right? Plus a bunch of subsequently banned chemical additives, I’m sure.

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u/chubbycatchaser Mar 03 '25

This might explain why the balsa wood offcuts from my bro’s model making looked really appealing to me

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u/hummingelephant Mar 03 '25

Do I need to get tested? In elementary school all my pencils were chewed down, even my books looked like a mouse was chewing on them (as a teacher angrily told me).

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u/improbablyatthegame Mar 03 '25

Why test? Just chew on tongue depressors.

I’m actually going to try this… I destroy my nails.

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u/Boring-Philosophy-46 Mar 03 '25

 Careful, some wood leaves splinters. I personally like licorice wood / root to chew on, it's sold as edible. But it can raise blood pressure. 

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u/notashroom Mar 03 '25

Do a self test. If it's not a definite no, then it may be worth your while to get tested.

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u/[deleted] Mar 03 '25

[deleted]

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u/blowmypipipirupi Mar 03 '25

Did they also do a test to understand if chewing a material with the same property of wood gave the same results? Or just wood vs gum?

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u/itsallinthebag Mar 03 '25

I was wondering this too. Like what about.. raw carrot?

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u/blowmypipipirupi Mar 03 '25

This, also licorice is technically wood, would it work?

Some people gnaw their fingers, does that work? So many questions

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u/Heavy_Weapons_Guy_ Mar 03 '25

Licorice is not wood, technically or otherwise.

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u/blowmypipipirupi Mar 03 '25

Licorice root is made of fibrous wood.

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u/Heavy_Weapons_Guy_ Mar 03 '25

No, it's not. Licorice is a small, herbaceous legume. It is not wood.

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u/blowmypipipirupi Mar 03 '25

These roots are made of woody fibers, often used for chewing, which is why I mentioned them.

Weird that you have never seen one as they are commonly used where i live, but maybe they are not as common overseas.

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u/Heavy_Weapons_Guy_ Mar 03 '25

It is by definition not wood, as it comes from an herbaceous plant. Having tough fibers doesn't make something wood.

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u/blowmypipipirupi Mar 03 '25

You should try and search for the definition of wood, then look up what roots are made of.

You could learn something new, or keep insisting on your stand, I'm ok with either.

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u/ToSeeAgainAgainAgain Mar 03 '25

That's just eating

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u/itsallinthebag Mar 03 '25

Sure but If they didn’t test it maybe the action of chewing something similarly hard has a similar effect

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u/IpsoKinetikon Mar 03 '25

The hypothesis is that it works with "hard materials", wood is just what they happened to use for this experiment. I hope to see further research with other materials.

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u/jcaldararo Mar 03 '25

Would like to see this further studied after establishing other materials commonly chewed, both hard and soft. There's quite a few comments about the relationship of lower glutathione levels in those with ADHD and how common chewing on things is for that population. Perhaps it's more than higher levels of stimulation that they seek.

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u/iMissTheOldInternet Mar 03 '25

I wonder if this has anything to do with tannins. Polyphenols like tannins are extremely important in aquatic ecosystems, although the mechanism is not well understood, and wood is loaded with tannins. 

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u/SvenHudson Mar 03 '25

What if it's really hard gum?

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u/sapienecks Mar 03 '25

So thats why we as kids chew on our pencils long time ago! No wonder!

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u/ksj Mar 03 '25

While there wasn’t a statistically significant difference in the change in glutathione levels between the gum and wood groups dire

What does this mean?