Chew the Pain Away: Oral Habits to Cope with Pain and Stress and to Stimulate Cognition

Table 1

The outcomes of two reviews on the effects of mastication on cognition and stress in healthy volunteers.

Variable	Allen and Smith, 2011; [15]	Tucha and Koerts, 2012; [16]
Cognitive outcomes
Academic performance		+
Alertness
Subjective	+
Attention
Divided
Selective
Shifting
Sustained/vigilance
Executive functioning
Memory
Context dependent
Recall
Recognition	−
Working	+	+
Test performance		−
Speed	+
Spatial skill
Stress related outcomes
Biomarkers (i.e., pupil dilation, heart rate)
Acute, self-reported
Chronic, self-reported	+
Salivary cortisol

The outcomes of two reviews on mastication, cognition, and stress. + = the authors report a positive effect; − = the authors report a negative effect; 0 = the authors report no effect; ± = the authors report contradicting results in the literature.