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General Science / Re: Reducing Teen Smoking -- would a spray showing if someone smoked help?
« on: 12/01/2014 04:43:46 »
Thanks for asking! I'm in mid-sixties, and hailing from Oregon. And you?
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To RD -- You wrote: "Maybe have a look at the hypotheses attempting to explain onychophagia & pica.
Relatedly, I have thought for a long time that this would also explain bruxism (teeth-grinding). Many disabled people show this behavior and it seems to be self-stimulating for them, perhaps physiologically and also perhaps in part because of the internal sounds produced. Bruxism, as well as continuing to chew gum once the flavor has left, are interesting responses.
I just found the following http://www.nhs.uk/news/2013/02February/Pages/Chewing-gum-aid-concentration.aspx
"Conclusion:
"This study has suggested that chewing gum may improve reaction times in healthy adults in a specific computerised cognitive task. The study only assessed 17 healthy relatively young adults, and the results may not apply to other groups of people.
"Most importantly, this specially designed cognitive experiment was performed in a laboratory environment, and may not represent what would happen in a real-world setting. For example, we can't say for certain whether people's reaction speeds when driving a car would be improved by chewing gum.
"The study may be of interest to some researchers, but at the moment it does not have any obvious practical implications for people's health or day-to-day lives."
Interesting results, but the fMRI findings were somewhat inconclusive.
Part of my "waking up for contests" behaviors used to include gum-chewing as well as opening my eyes quite wide (widening the palpebral fissure, the distance between eyelids). Probably some of that is expectancy events, but those methods did appear to help with focus. Seems to me that very wide-open eyes are also arousal-inducing.
Caleb