"Why is yawning so contagious"?
Answer:
You know what? I yawned after I read the question! =)
(I guess just the mention of the word can trigger the need ~ I was *not* saying it was a boring question)
The yawn reflex is often described as contagious: if one person yawns, this will cause another person to "sympathetically" yawn.[5] Mythbusters attempted an experiment documenting this effect in episode 2.28, "Is Yawning Contagious?", with a conclusion of partly confirmed. The proximate cause for contagious yawning may lie with mirror neurons, i.e. neurons in the frontal cortex of certain vertebrates, which upon being exposed to a stimulus from conspecific (same species) and occasionally interspecific organisms, activates the same regions in the brain.[6] Mirror neurons have been proposed as a driving force for imitation which lies at the root of much human learning, e.g. language acquisition. Yawning may be an offshoot of the same imitative impulse.
To look at the issue in terms of evolutionary advantage, yawning might be a herd instinct.[7] Other theories suggest that the yawn serves to synchronize mood behavior among gregarious animals, similar to the howling of the wolf pack. It signals tiredness to other members of the group in order to synchronize sleeping patterns and periods of activity. It can serve as a warning in displaying large, canine teeth.[citation needed] This phenomenon has been observed among various primates. The threat gesture is a way of maintaining order in the primates' social structure. The contagion of yawning is interspecific, for example a human yawning in front of a pet dog can incite the dog to yawn as well. Oddly, sometimes sympathetic yawning may be caused by simply looking at a picture of a person or animal yawning, or even seeing the word yawn.[citation needed] A specific study was conducted on chimpanzees. A group of chimpanzees was shown a video of other chimpanzees yawning, and the study chimpanzees yawned also. This helps to partly confirm a yawn's "contagiousness".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/yawning...
Because a yawn is contagious its elegant to yawn its good for you.
myth busted
I dont know but it feels nice ^^
You yawn because there is a lack of oxygen to your brain, so the brain signals a yawn for maximum intake of oxygen in one breath... If people are yawning at the same time then it could be that they none of them are breathing in enough oxygen!!??
Yawning is a sign that your brain needs oxygen. You see someone else yawn it sends a message to your brain saying that you should do it to. Its kind of like smoking, when you see someone else doing it, you want one to. But only if you smoke I guess.
Thats a really good question.and I really don't know. It happens to me all the time I'll see someone yawning and ka-boom I'm doing it myself. I actually yawned a little reading your question. My best answer would be that when someone yawns after a long day or in the morning for waking up and at night staying up late whenever, when someone sees someone yawning I think that they realize how tired they really are, or they are just waking up a little more.I always heard that you weren't getting enough oxygen to your brain and thats probably it too. Thats a really good question and I'm wondering myself..hope this answer was useful to you!! =)
I have read many theories on the subject, but the one that I give most credence to is that as diurnal mammals it "was" a type of alarm, if you will, that kept the group in synch with each other. Imagine: many thousands of years ago EVERYONE pulled their weight or were banished or perished due to obvious reasons, so when it was time to sleep, ALL persons needed to sleep so that when it was time to "work": forage, gather, hunt, etc., everyone was able to take full advantage of the daylight. Which, also for obvious reasons, is the best time for homo erectus to utilize.
cos it is transmitted thru the air
Yes, I've seen it on MythBusters with the conclusion that Yawning is contagious. Shellbugger had it, phew!. Thanks for the info. Learned a lot.
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