Do you ever get annoyed when all of your friends are yawning, and so you start doing it yourself, even when you aren’t tired? Have you ever wondered why holding back a yawn is so difficult, or why thinking about them can trigger them? A recent study at Nottingham University looked into exactly why yawns are so contagious.
They found that yawns are a form of echo performance, a type of epiphenomenon, which is a function of the primary motor cortex. The primary motor cortex is the area of the brain that controls muscle function and the part that echo performance triggers is a primitive reflex. Echo performances happen when we unconsciously copy the actions of those around us. While this might have been helpful millions of years ago, now it is little more than an annoyance.
While this study may seem silly, it has wider implications for the treatments of diseases such as Tourette’s, epilepsy, dementia, and autism. Interesting, a 2010 study from the University of Connecticut found that children generally do not start contagiously yawning until they are four years old and children with autism yawn contagiously far less often. This study looked into the neural basis for echo performance using trans-cranial magnetic stimulation.
Previously, some studies showed that yawning might have something to do with empathy. The more empathetic people were, the more likely they were to yawn along with others. However, a study at Duke University found this to be untrue, as it is more likely that yawning just decreases with age and has more to do with reflexes than with empathy.
It also isn’t just humans who fall prey to echo performance. Both dogs and chimpanzees will yawn when they see others yawning!
While yawns still aren’t fully understood, they do provide an interesting look into human evolution and makes us wonder just what our ancestors were doing that made them yawn together. While echo performance may have broader implications for future scientific research, right now scientists are still looking into more causes and how they can use their research to help people.