The cortical effect of chewing gum during hand movements: A functional MRI study

Abstract

Nine right-handed normal subjects were recruited for this study. We compared the cortical activation during execution of hand movements (right finger flexion–extension) with that during execution of hand movements while chewing gum (right side chewing). We found that execution of hand movements while chewing gum induced less activation in the contralateral SM1 than hand movements alone. Based on our findings, it appears chewing gum during execution of hand movements enhanced the efficiency of hand movements.

• Chewing gum
• functional MRI
• motor cortex

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (2012R1A1A4A01001873).

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest.