Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Merely thinking about or seeing someone yawning can make you yawn. But why?
For premium support please call: 800-290-4726 more ways to reach us
Reasons we we yawn. It was once believed that the main function of yawning was to increase otherwise low oxygen levels, but a 1987 study disproved that theory. And despite extensive additional ...
The yawn reflex has long been observed to be contagious. In 1508, Erasmus wrote, "One man's yawning makes another yawn", [39] and the French proverbialized the idea to "Un bon bâilleur en fait bâiller sept" ('One good gaper makes seven others gape'). [40] Often, if one person yawns, this may cause another person to "empathetically" yawn. [23]
Although there is not a concrete explanation as to why we yawn, others think people exhale as a cooling mechanism for our brains. Studies on animals have supported this idea and it is possible humans could be linked to it as well. [15] What is known is that yawning does ventilate all the alveoli in the lungs. [citation needed]
Which animals yawn, and has it evolved independently more than once? A little further explanation as to how yawning is advantageous - how would an organism that didn't yawn/respond to yawns be more likely to die? Physiologically, what is the difference (if there is any) between a true reflexive yawn and a voluntary effort to simulate a yawn?
For premium support please call: 800-290-4726 more ways to reach us
This is a more accurate defenition of a yawn and animals that perform yawning. Stretching the eardrums is only a small part of the yawn and refers to one specific hypothesis (middle ear clearing). This is considered a side-effect by many scientists in the field of yawning, thus I would not state it in the defenition. Thank you again!