Why Is Yawning Contagious?

Have you heard of eco-symptoms? This is when people automatically repeat other people’s words or actions. An example of eco-symptoms is when we see someone yawning and almost immediately yawning themselves. But why is yawning contagious ? Is there any neurological explanation for this phenomenon?

The psychologist Robert Provine made the following statement in 1986: “Yawning can have the dubious distinction of being the least understood of our ordinary human behaviors”. Can neuroscience now, several years later, help us find the answer to the question? Is there more than one explanation? We will investigate this in today’s article.

Why is yawning contagious?

According to a study conducted in 2014 by Romero et al. Only humans, chimpanzees, dogs and wolves seem to have “contagious” yawns, although there are many animals that yawn. But what makes yawning contagious? Let’s take a closer look at what applies to humans and what may be the most relevant explanations.

Activation of the motor cerebral cortex

A group of researchers at the University of Nottingham (England) conducted a study in 2017, published in  Current Biology,  in which they tried to find the answer to the question why it is contagious to yawn.

According to English researchers, this is an action that is due to an automatic reaction in the brain. It is activated precisely in the area responsible for the regulation of motor functions. This study thus indicates that our tendency to mimic other people’s yawns would have originated in the brain’s primary motor cortex. It is this area that is responsible for performing the body’s movements via nerve impulses.

The design of the experiment

A total of 36 adult volunteers participated in the experiment. They were told how to hold back their yawns and then asked to watch videos of yawning people. Finally, the number of yawns that took place (including those that were suffocated) was counted.

Using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), the researchers analyzed the possible link between the neural basis for yawning and motor irritability.

The research group found that a person’s susceptibility to “infectious yawning” was due to the cortical irritability and the physiological inhibition in the primary motor cortex. This may explain why some people yawn more than others. It also explains why some people seem to copy the yawns of others, while others do so less often.

Can we suppress yawns?

Are we thus almost pre-programmed to start yawning when we see another yawn? Or can we control this reflex? According to the same English researcher, we have limited opportunities to resist this contagious effect. In addition, the researchers found that the need to yawn may in fact increase when trying to suppress a yawn.

In fact, the experiment with electrical stimulation showed that as motor irritability increased, so did the tendency to mimic other people’s yawns. The truth is that we can not really control “contagious yawns”, because we have an innate tendency to imitate the behavior.

A better understanding of how certain diseases arise

In fact, this experiment may help researchers studying other diseases. It can make it easier for them to better determine what lies behind diseases that involve increased cortical irritability and reduced physiological inhibition.

Here we are talking about diseases such as dementia, autism, epilepsy or Tourette’s syndrome. Characteristic of these diseases is that patients can not stop certain eco-symptoms. Examples of such are, in addition to involuntary yawning, also ekolali (forced repetition of other people’s words and sentences) and ecopraxia (mechanical repetition of other people’s movements).

In this regard, the leader of the experiment, Georgina Jackson, a professor of cognitive neuropsychology at the Institute of Mental Health in Nottingham, offered the following explanation:

Jackson further adds that the findings could help patients with Tourette’s syndrome by reducing motor irritability and thereby reducing their tics.

Other explanations for why it is contagious to yawn: empathy, genetics and synchronization

Before undertaking this study, other researchers had tried to find alternative explanations for why it is contagious to yawn. Many of them suggested that one reason could be the desire to communicate empathy. In other words, we subconsciously harbor empathy for someone who is yawning. We repeat the gesture without being able to stop it, as if we were a reflection of the person in question.

This theory has many adherents. It assumes that our ability to interpret what others experience means that we put ourselves in their situation or feel the same way, even when it comes to such “primary” actions as yawning. As a result, we would not be able to stop ourselves from yawning when we see someone else doing it.

Some studies that try to clarify why it is contagious to yawn refer to the activation of certain brain circuits that are characteristic of empathy. These are the circuits that include the aforementioned mirror neurons. These neurons could act as an inner reflex of the movements we observe in others.

Another possible explanation for the phenomenon has to do with communication and synchronization. In connection with this, researcher and psychology professor Matthew Campbell has the following to say:

Synchronization of the group

This explanation is based on the fact that it is an imitative act and that the imitation of the yawns would make the group synchronized. Campbell believes that we can see this in our eating habits. When it’s time to eat, everyone eats and here you can consider eating as something contagious. This can also apply when we are tempted to imitate other people’s movements and postures.

In short, there are two main explanations for the phenomenon. You can choose which one you think is the right one!