Human, Animal Yawns Evolution and Contagiousness Studied by Experts

A Simple sight of individual yawning leads to many others opening their mouths in mimicry. If you can relate to the scenario, don't worry because you are not alone.

Other animals like lions and chimpanzees can catch the so-called "contagious yawns," as well, a Science report specified. It is likely that all vertebrates are yawning spontaneously to regulate inner body processes.

Yawning possibly occurred with the evolution of jawed fishes at least 400 million years ago, explained evolutionary biologist Andrew Gallup from the State University of New York Polytechnic Institute, who has spent years trying to find out why people yawn.

In the study, Gallup reported some evidence for how contagious yawns might have evolved t keep humans safe. In his interview with Science, the evolutionary biologist talked about the reason yawning is universal, not to mention, useful.

When asked if yawning increases blood oxygen levels, Gallup's answer was "No." Despite the continued belief, a study has explicitly tested that hypothesis and the outcomes have concluded that breathing and "yawning are controlled by different mechanisms."

For instance, there are really interesting cases of yawning in marine mammals, where it takes place while the said creatures are submerged underwater and thus not breathing.

What Yawning Does to the Body

Yawning is a somewhat complex reflex. It is activated under various contexts, not to mention, neurophysiological changes.

As specified in the study published in the Animal Behavior journal, yawning primarily takes place during periods of state change, usually following transitions between sleeping and waking.

There's a study that suggests too, that yawns are triggered alongside increases om cortical arousal, therefore, yawns themselves may work to promote alertness.

More so, there is a growing body of research suggesting that yawning is triggered by increases in brain temperature.

A similar LiveScience.Tech report said that according to Gallup, he conducted a number of studies testing this in "humans, nonhuman mammals, and even birds."

Animal Yawns Are Contagious

Several large-scale comparative studies have been conducted, where researchers have recorded the yawn duration of more than 100 mammalian and avian species.

The scientists discovered that even when controlling for the size of the body, there are very strong positive associations between the duration of an animal's yawn, and how big and complex its brain is.

One of the most curious things about yawning is that it can be contagious, a related World News Era report said. Experts have been talking about spontaneous yawns up to this point, those that are physiologically driven.

Essentially, contagious yawns are stimulated by weeing or yearning yawns in others, and they have only been recorded in highly social species, including humans.

There's wide variability in the reaction among individuals, Some are quite vulnerable to yawn contagion, while others are not.

Why Do We Yawn When We See Others Yawn?

Contagious yawning may have developed to synchronize a collective behavior or group behavior, yawns frequently cluster during specific times of the day, coinciding with transitions and activity. It may have evolved as well, to increase vigilance within a group.

The basic explanation is that, if yawning is an indicator that an individual is going through diminished arousal, then, seeing another individual yawn might, in turn, raise the vigilance of an observer to compensate for the yawner's low vigilance.

The spreading across the group of contagious yawns might then augment the entire group's vigilance. Gallup conducted research in 2021 that tested this.

The researchers showed people different images that included threatening stimuli, images of snakes, and nonthreatening stimuli, images of frogs, and timed how fast they could pick out such images after they saw videos of people yawning, moving their mouths in different ways.

After seeing other people yawn, their ability to identify and detect snakes, and the threatening stimulants quickly improved. Nonetheless, following the observation of yawning, frog detection was not affected.

Related information about why animals yawn is shown on Facts to Know's YouTube video below:

Check out more news and information on Animals in Science Times.