Why if someone yawns you start to yawn. Safe "infection", or Why yawning is contagious

Scientists have never figured out why yawning is so contagious, but they have several theories.

Oddly enough, scientists have not yet fully figured out such a "trifle". There are various hypotheses. Two of them are physiological. The first argues that contagious yawning is caused by a specific stimulus—a specific yawn. Scientists call this a fixed form of action. Thus, we can say that contagious yawning is a reflex. Moreover, as soon as the reflex is triggered, it cannot be stopped. If you have already opened your mouth, it is impossible to suppress a yawn.

The second physiological hypothesis is based on unconscious imitation or the chameleon effect. Its essence is the unconscious copying of the behavior of another person, that is, it is a subtle and unintentional manner of imitation. You may have noticed that people tend to mimic each other's postures. If you sit in front of a person with your legs crossed, you are likely to cross yours too. If you see someone yawning, you will probably yawn yourself. Scientists are convinced that the chameleon effect is due to the presence in our brain of a special set of neurons called mirror neurons.

These are brain neurons that react in the same way, both to our actions and to the behavior of others - in the case when we see that someone performs the same action. Mirror neurons play an important role in the process of learning and human self-awareness. Watching your mom paint her lips and your dad fix the engine helps you do things like this more accurately. Brain scans using fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) have shown that when we see someone yawn, or even hear the sound of inhaled air, then in a certain part of the brain where mirror neurons accumulate, an excitation occurs that leads to a response - yawning.

The third hypothesis is psychological. It is also based on the work of mirror neurons. Psychologists call the contagious yawn empathic. Empathy, as we know, is the ability to understand the feelings of others and share their emotions. This is a key ability for social animals like us. Not too long ago, neuroscientists discovered that many mirror neurons help us experience other people's feelings on a deeper level. This empathic response yawn was discovered while testing the first hypothesis we discussed above, the fixed form of action.

Studies have been conducted to prove that dogs are also subject to the yawn reflex if they hear the sound of a yawn. In addition to the fact that scientists were able to confirm this, something else interesting was also discovered. It turned out that more often dogs react to the yawns of their acquaintances, for example, the owners, than to the yawns of strangers. This study confirmed the results of other studies on human and primate behavior, namely, the existence of contagious yawning, which occurs more often among friends than strangers.

More recently, scientists have put forward a new hypothesis.

Researchers from the University of Nottingham have linked the contagiousness of yawning to the activity of the primary motor cortex of the brain and individual human motor excitability.

The study involved 36 adult volunteers. They were shown videos of people yawning. The participants received different instructions: some of the volunteers were asked to restrain their yawning, while others, on the contrary, were told to yawn as much as they wanted. The instructions have changed several times. Scientists calculated the number of yawns and attempts to suppress them in both groups. During the test, scientists used the method of transcranial magnetic stimulation, which makes it possible to non-invasively influence various parts of the cerebral cortex.

Scientists noticed that when the volunteer was asked to restrain himself, the desire to yawn increased. Exposing the brain to transcranial magnetic stimulation also made people more easily succumb to the urge to repeat the movement. Scientists explained the individual tendency to “infection” with yawning by the activity of the primary motor cortex of the brain. This zone is involved in the regulation of the movements of the muscles of the human body. According to scientists, it is the activity of this area that determines how much a person is susceptible to the contagious effects of yawning.

Experiment Design and Data on Participant Groups, Current Biology

According to scientists, the results of the study of the causes of yawning can help people suffering from other manifestations of motor excitability. For example, these results can be used to combat the symptoms of Tourette's syndrome. With this disorder of the central nervous system, a person regularly makes several types of uncontrolled obsessive movements - tics.

Experiments have proven that yawning cools the brain.

Scientists from the University of Vienna and their American colleagues put forward the theory of thermoregulation. Arousal and stress, as well as the process of sleep, change the temperature of our brain.

At the same time, during stress and excitement, the brains "heat up", and in sleep, on the contrary, they cool down. According to experts, the yawning mechanism is designed to regulate the temperature of our mental organ.

But if this is the case, then the contagious effect of yawning must depend on the ambient temperature. It was this hypothesis that Jörg Massen and Kim Dush from the University of Vienna decided to test.

The researchers stopped passers-by on the streets of Vienna and showed them images of people yawning, and then watched to see if they started to yawn. After conducting such an experiment on 120 "subjects" in various weather conditions, the scientists came to an unambiguous conclusion: in summer people are "infected" by yawning more often than in winter.

The maximum effect of "infection" manifested itself at a temperature of 20 degrees Celsius. In heat or extreme cold, people were practically not infected by yawning when the experimenters showed them photographs. Similar results were also obtained by their American counterparts in Arizona.

Yawning is a method of thermoregulation of the brain only if the temperature of the environment and the human body differ from each other. Therefore, this effect is most pronounced at a relatively low temperature, but not so low as to cause hypothermia.
Jörg Massen, University of Vienna

Keywords: Why yawning is contagious, experiments, scientists, science news, hypotheses, causes of yawning, physiological, imitation

Everyone yawns - mammals, birds, amphibians and even fish. Scientists have found that the child begins to yawn even in the womb.

According to the head of the sleep laboratory at the University Clinical Hospital No. 1 Alexander Palman, for a long time it was believed that this was a reaction to oxygen starvation. It happens, for example, in a stuffy room.

Another theory. When a person falls into a drowsiness, his breathing slows down. When yawning, more oxygen enters the body - and drowsiness decreases.

There was another funny version. The brain needs a stable temperature to function properly. When yawning, a fair portion of cold air enters the body. That is, it is an air conditioner for the brain.

All theories were believed to be true for a long time. When I was a student, we were taught that way. Now everything is being criticized and it is believed that there are no clear explanations why a person yawns, says Alexander Palman.

The brain has been programmed this way since ancient times.

There are also interesting theories about the contagiousness of yawning. It is possible that primitive people organized the life of their tribe with the help of yawns. Yawning, transmitted from person to person, could serve as a signal: it's time to sleep or, conversely, to hunt! And now in our brain this "program" has not yet been completely erased.

The act of breathing is a universal mechanism of higher vertebrates. Perhaps, at some certain stage of evolution, yawning played an important role, and now it is an atavism that can be compared with an appendix, because no one can clearly explain its necessity either, says the somnologist. - The most important thing is that there is no harm from yawning, so yawn to your health.

Psychologists have their own version. As psychologist Denis Kozhevnikov explains, yawning is often associated with a desire to sleep. Yawning - that is, publicly admitting to being tired - is easier after someone nearby has already done it.

It turns out that this received approval from the outside, I was not the first to yawn, - the psychologist explained.

According to him, relatives and friends more often “infect” us with yawning, because we feel safe with them and can calmly show our condition.

The source of "inspiration" for a yawn can be not only a person, but also an animal. Looking at a cat or dog stretching its mouth, it is easy to succumb to a sleepy mood. But when the characters on the screen yawn, this does not happen.

We perceive the image in a film or in a photo in a different way. Screen characters do not seem real to us, - explains Kozhevnikov.

As the psychologist says, the "virus" of yawning can be compared to the "virus" of panic. It also spreads very easily in a crowd.

I often watched a picture in the subway: if one person yawns, then all passengers begin to yawn, a chain reaction is obtained, says Kozhevnikov.

"The reflex associated with the work of the brain stem region", or in a simple way - yawning, has become the object of a new study by scientists, writes The Independent.

Most vertebrates yawn involuntarily, but only humans, chimpanzees, and probably some other species of monkeys are able to imitate someone else's yawn. Seeing how someone else yawns, others begin to yawn. The question of why yawning is contagious has long attracted the attention of the greatest luminaries of science, but now a new study on the subject suggests that the phenomenon is associated with empathy. We yawn when we see others do it because we feel the need to share other people's emotions (full text on InoPressa.ru).

Atsushi Sengu of Bierbeck College, a part of the University of London, and his Japanese colleagues tested the response to yawning in healthy and autistic children. Scientists have found that autistic people do not react to someone else's yawning.

Autism is a brain developmental disorder in which children are unable to make normal emotional connections with those around them. Some experts believe that this is due to the inability to perceive the emotional state of other people.

The discovery that autistic children do not respond to other people's yawns—although they involuntarily yawn like all other children—suggests that it is empathy that makes yawning epidemic.

The ability of autistic children to imitate yawning is impaired and may be related to the fact that these children have a harder time feeling other people's emotions, the researchers report in their study, published in the journal Biology Letters. "This provides support for the notion that imitative yawning is related to the capacity for empathy," explains Dr. Sengu.

"Our study shows for the first time that autistic children are unable to mimic yawns. To my knowledge, this is the first time that a brain development disorder can make a person immune to someone else's yawning," he says.

Almost all vertebrates, from fish to dogs and cats, yawn - this is an ancient reflex inherited in the course of evolution. Only humans and chimpanzees, and possibly also macaques, have been shown in scientific studies to mimic yawning.

Some scientists believe that yawning allows extra oxygen to be sent to the brain. Thus, it is designed to maintain a certain level of vigilance in tense moments. This helps to explain why, for example, people often yawn when they are waiting for some exciting event. Yawning often attacks athletes before a competition or students before an exam.

But that doesn't explain why yawning evolved into a contagious phenomenon. According to one theory, this is due to the fact that people once lived in packs, like chimpanzees, and it was important for them to go to bed at the same time. So yawning is a signal that it's time for sleep.

But the current study points to the fact that imitative yawning is linked to people's proclivity for empathy. People have varying degrees of ability to imagine what another person is thinking or feeling. This is the basis of empathy. Autistic children lack this ability, and this explains why they are not affected by someone else's yawning.

Why is yawning contagious? Did you pay attention to it? After all, as soon as someone yawns, everyone around starts doing the same. Even if there is absolutely no reason for it. So why is yawning contagious? Scientists have tried to figure out...

Why is yawning contagious? Observations

What do the doctors say? Their very first belief in the question of why yawning is contagious is the following thought: people who do not know how to empathize are prone to it, that is, tough personalities who are unable to imagine themselves in the place of someone else.

Why is yawning contagious? many people ask. Yes, it is, of course, closely related to the "prelude of sleep." But, nevertheless, why do people yawn, who, it would seem, don’t even want to sleep?

One of the theories is rather unusual. Once upon a time, people lived in herds, like chimpanzees. And they had to go to bed only at the same time. Yawning just served them as a signal that it was time for sleep. The yawn of each neighbor was a signal to yawn to the person himself. After that - sleep. So have long acted, by the way, and herd animals.

There is a contagious yawning, by the way, between animals and people. As soon as the owner yawned, the dog repeats it. The fact is that dogs tend to empathize with their human owner. They understand all his gestures and views.

Domino effect

Why do people yawn and why is yawning contagious? It would seem that you do not feel very tired. However, as soon as someone yawns, you also open your mouth in a long yawn. This phenomenon is called "contagious yawning". Its origin, in principle, has not yet been clarified by scientists. However, several hypotheses still exist.

One of them claims that a contagious yawn is provoked by certain stimuli. This is called a set pattern of action. The sample works simultaneously as a reflex and a domino effect. That is, the yawn of an outsider literally makes another person, who has become an accidental witness to this event, do the same. Most importantly, this reflex cannot be resisted. Just like the beginning of a yawn. In a word, the situation is very interesting.

chameleon effect

Consider the second physiological reason why yawning is so contagious. It is known as the chameleon effect, or unconscious mimicry. Someone else's behavior serves as the basis for its unintentional imitation. People tend to borrow postures and gestures from each other. For example, your interlocutor crosses his legs opposite. And you will do the same without even noticing it.

This happens, apparently, because of a special set of mirror neurons sharpened to copy other people's actions, which are extremely important for self-awareness and learning. A person can learn some physical practices (knitting, applying lipstick, etc.) by watching someone else do it. It has been proven that when we hear or contemplate someone else's yawn, we activate our mirror neurons.

The psychological cause is also based on the action of mirror neurons. It's called the empathy yawn. That is, it is the ability to share and understand other people's emotions, which is extremely important for people.

Not so long ago, neuroscientists found that mirror neurons give a person the opportunity to experience empathy at the deepest level. The study was conducted to find out whether dogs can respond to the sounds of human yawns. As it turned out, animals pay attention more often to the familiar yawn of their owners.

Results

And finally. Yawning is contagious and very helpful. The phenomenon is rather mysterious. Why is it needed at all? Some believe that this is a great way to increase the amount of oxygen in the blood. Accordingly, for cheerfulness. Others argue that yawning lowers the temperature of the brain, cools it down. But, that's why it is contagious - it's still difficult to say.

By the way, this is not only about yawning. Panic, excitement, laughter, and many other states of ours are also contagious. Remember that man is a "herd animal". Therefore, the “herd instincts” are very well developed in him.

Thus, certain conclusions can be drawn. Yawning is truly contagious, and it is almost impossible to resist the urge to yawn in the presence of a sleepy person. All the reasons are in our psychology, in the peculiarities of our brain and thinking. In general, the human body, as usual, never ceases to amaze us!

The science

Do you see someone yawning and trying not to yawn yourself? It's practically impossible. Even just reading about yawning will make you want to yawn.

Why is yawning so contagious? A new study tries to explain this fact. Researchers have shown that children under the age of four do not exhibit this behavior. Children with autism are half as likely to yawn back, and more often than not, they don't yawn at all. The results of the study indicate that contagious yawning is a sign of empathy and a form of social bonding .

“It seems that emotional contagion is the basic instinct that brings us together,” says Molly Helt, graduate student in clinical psychology at the University of Connecticut. “Yawning could be part of it. For example, the fact that children with autism are not affected by the contagious effect of yawning, may mean that they do not have that unconscious emotional connection with others.

The baby begins to yawn in the womb as early as the 11th week after conception, He speaks Robert Provine, a neurologist at the University of Maryland. And so all my life. For what reason, scientists have not yet determined. In fact, all animals yawn, including snakes and lizards.

But contagious yawning occurs only in chimpanzees, in humans and a little in dogs. Scientists have suggested that this is a kind of exchange of experience that contributes to the development of social ties.

So, Molly Helt conducted experiments on children. She read the same fairy tale, but in different ways, to 120 healthy children from one to six years old, dividing them into age groups, each of which had 20 children.

During the 10-minute reading, Helt deliberately yawned every 90 seconds. Video cameras recorded how the children behaved.

The researchers repeated the same experiment with 28 children with autism, aged six to fifteen.

According to a study published in the journal child development, none of the healthy children at the age of one year yawned in response Helt. Only one child at the age of two and two of the three-year-olds repeated the yawn.

Scientists observed a striking jump in four-year-olds - yawning spread to 9 out of 20 children. The children of the older groups reacted in a similar way.

In the second part of their study, the researchers found that the contagiousness of yawning decreased in children with the most severe forms of autism.

Robert Provin suggests that the results of the study, in addition to helping in the diagnosis and understanding of autism, draw belated attention to fundamental and unconscious behavior - an area of psychology long ignored by scientists.

According to him, yawning is a process rooted deep in the essence of our being, in the ability to empathize, into the primary form of social bonding.

The next time you think of yawning, take a look around: is there someone nearby who also yawns sweetly? A new study has shown that close friends and family members are much more likely to "infect" a person with a yawn than just acquaintances or strangers.

Researchers believe that the contagiousness of yawns is partly the result of empathy for a loved one and the ability to respond to their emotions.

“I think the point of the study is to show empathy and liking as the basis for contagious yawning,” said Matthew Campbell of Emory University, who was not personally involved in the study. “The same mechanism underlies the contagiousness of smiles or frowns, as well as expressions of fear.”

Although yawning does not seem to be related to any specific emotion (like smiles signifying happiness or joy), we form an emotional connection with others in a certain way by responding to a yawn or other emotion in the same way. Campbell says. When we yawn with another person, we may share or understand their tiredness or boredom.

In fact, past research has shown stronger empathic responses to emotions between relatives and lovers. Also, past studies have found that children with autism do not echo onlookers. Autism itself causes problems in communication and other interactions with society. On the other hand, pet dogs can become infected by yawning from humans, a cross-breed study has shown.

How contagious is yawning?

The "spread of yawns" has been studied across different primate species, and most of the studies have been conducted in laboratory settings. In the new study, Ivan Norsia and Elisabetta Palagi of the University of Pisa in Italy, in a departure from previous studies, observed adults in a variety of natural environments, including restaurants, workplaces, waiting rooms and homes.

The 109 adults who participated in the study were from Europe, North America, Asia and Africa. The division of the sexes was approximately the same groups. The researchers recorded 480 yawns. After analyzing the factors that could affect the time between yawns of a nearby person and an experimental person, the scientists came to the conclusion that social ties play a major role here.

In order not to confuse spontaneous yawns with those caused by another person, the researchers limited themselves to observations in the interval of 3 minutes. In two-thirds of the recorded cases, the relatives of the “experimental” yawned in response within a minute, as did about half of the friends of the yawner.

Most strangers or just acquaintances responded to a yawn after 2-3 minutes, as reported by Norsia in an interview with LiveScience.

“Among acquaintances and relatives, not only the spread of yawning is increasing, but also an increase in sympathy and empathy. The closer people are to each other, the stronger this connection,” Norcia and Palagi reported online December 7 for PLoS ONE magazine.

Do you think that with a yawn you can easily check how well a friend or other person is towards you? Norcia told LiveScience in a letter that during their study, she "complained that her husband returned a couple of yawns from one of her girlfriends - but it was just a joke." He clarified that sympathy is a subjective quality, and many factors affect yawning and catching yawns from another person, including boredom and banal fatigue.

Meaning of yawns

Although the results suggest that yawning is contagious, it does not reveal the genetic link between the habit and our ancestors. One of the assumptions about this adaptive theory is that empathic inheritance of behavior was a very important phenomenon among our kindred primates.

“If our ancestors climbed high in trees to sleep to protect themselves from predator attacks, and yawns were a sign of sleepiness and a signal for this habit, then perhaps yawning is a consequence of evolution.” This conclusion was made by Euclid O. Smith, a scientist from the Department of Anthropology at Emory University. "The one who yawned last may have become the predator's dinner." Smith himself did not take part in the latest study.

Campbell told LiveScience that the yawns may have been a side effect of faking emotions. Maybe we initially copied the smiles and frowns of others, and then began to imitate yawns as well, although such behavior was not a consequence of human evolution.

Until now, scientists are arguing about the meaning and reasons for the return yawning of others.

“Very little is known about cognitive yawning,” reports Atsushi Senju of the Center for Brain and Cognitive Development at Birkbeck College London. Senju, who participated in the study, noted: “It would be useful to learn how to manage the spread of a certain emotion in a group, but knowledge is not enough for this. It may just be a by-product of liking - being close to family or friends and empathizing with their feelings, which just helps keep the relationship close.”

Everyone yawns - mammals, birds, amphibians and even fish. Scientists have found that the child begins to yawn even in the womb.

Another theory. When a person falls into a drowsiness, his breathing slows down. When yawning, more oxygen enters the body - and drowsiness decreases.

There was another funny version. The brain needs a stable temperature to function properly. When yawning, a fair portion of cold air enters the body. That is, it is an air conditioner for the brain.

The brain has been programmed this way since ancient times.

It turns out that this received approval from the outside, I was not the first to yawn, - the psychologist explained.

According to him, relatives and friends more often “infect” us with yawning, because we feel safe with them and can calmly show our condition.

We perceive the image in a film or in a photo in a different way. Screen characters do not seem real to us, - explains Kozhevnikov.

As the psychologist says, the "virus" of yawning can be compared to the "virus" of panic. It also spreads very easily in a crowd.

I often watched a picture in the subway: if one person yawns, then all passengers begin to yawn, a chain reaction is obtained, says Kozhevnikov.

Interesting Facts

People who are in serious condition, for example, after an accident, do not yawn. The first yawn is even considered a sign of overcoming a crisis in the disease.
If they look at you, then it is unlikely that you will be able to yawn.
To avoid blocking your ears when flying on an airplane, it is recommended to yawn. So you can equalize the pressure on the eardrum (so that it is the same outside and inside the ear).
Some animals, such as lions and monkeys, yawn when they are hungry.

The science

Do you see someone yawning and trying not to yawn yourself? It's practically impossible. Even just reading about yawning will make you want to yawn.

During the 10-minute reading, Helt deliberately yawned every 90 seconds. Video cameras recorded how the children behaved.

The researchers repeated the same experiment with 28 children with autism, aged six to fifteen.

Scientists observed a striking jump in four-year-olds - yawning spread to 9 out of 20 children. The children of the older groups reacted in a similar way.

In the second part of their study, the researchers found that the contagiousness of yawning decreased in children with the most severe forms of autism.

According to him, yawning is a process rooted deep in the essence of our being, in the ability to empathize, into the primary form of social bonding.

Not only people yawn, it is also characteristic of other mammals, and birds, and even some reptiles. For everyone, including y, it performs one function: compensation for the lack of oxygen. A quick deep breath, which happens with yawning, allows you to completely straighten the alveoli - the structural units of the lungs, which allows you to "increase the supply" of oxygen to the body, primarily to the brain.

Lack of oxygen always causes yawning, whatever its cause: an unventilated room, hearty, and even ... boredom. In the latter case, inhibition spreads in the central nervous system, which suppresses the work of the respiratory centers of the brain. This leads to oxygen starvation.

If a group of people are in one of these - a stuffy room or a boring event - it is not surprising that everyone starts yawning. But it happens that the cause of yawning is individual - for example, heart failure - but others still begin to yawn after this person. Why is this happening?

Contagiousness of yawning

The reason for the contagiousness of neurons lies in the action of mirror neurons.

These special brain cells were first discovered by Italian neuroscientists J. Rizzolatti and L. Fogassi in experiments on monkeys. They are located in three areas of the cerebral cortex: frontal, lower parietal and upper temporal. The functions of mirror neurons have not been fully explored, but we can already talk about their main feature.

This feature is clearly seen in the example of the following experiment: the subjects are shown on the screen how people perform certain actions. At first they just look, then they perform this action together with the characters, and then they look at the name of the action written on the screen. In all three cases, mirror neurons fire.

Experimental results suggest that mirror neurons play a major role in the imitation mechanism. It is based on learning, understanding the complex behavioral reactions of others. But simple physiological manifestations, including yawning, also activate mirror neurons, which leads to the repetition of such actions, and it is their activity that explains the contagiousness of yawning.

Mirror neurons provide a person with the ability to empathize. And don't judge people who yawn easily when someone yawns nearby: they have a heightened tendency to empathize.