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Specter
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23 Apr 2008, 10:42 pm

oddly enough, I haven't yawned yet. still haven't. still haven't. still haven't. still haven't. still haven't. still haven't. still haven't. still haven't. still haven't. still haven't. still haven't. still haven't. still haven't. still haven't........


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Brittany2907
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24 Apr 2008, 1:50 am

I yawn a LOT. This is not because I "catch" peoples yawns, but because I am sleep deprived.

I read somewhere that people yawn because of lack of oxygen...that makes sense. People yawn when they are tired, because when they are tired their heart rate slows down (and you generally breathe slower, if you've paid attention to it), reducing the amount of oxygen that reaches the brain. Your brain craves oxygen, so you yawn to "gulp air". Atleast, I think. It's just a theory anyway.


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SabbraCadabra
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24 Apr 2008, 2:07 pm

IdahoRose wrote:
Anybody else start yawning while reading/responding to this thread? :lol:


I managed to hold it back until just now :roll:



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24 Apr 2008, 2:08 pm

TallyMan wrote:
I read somewhere that dogs yawn as a sign of confusion. Having observed mine with that in mind it seems to be true.

Amongst people I find yawning very contagious. In a large group of people a yawn seems to propagate continuously like a Mexican wave, never stopping once started.



same can go for coughing i believe



SabbraCadabra
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24 Apr 2008, 11:50 pm

kleodimus wrote:
same can go for coughing i believe


Ha ha, I like when you're in a movie theatre, and it's all quiet...and then one person coughs, so everyone else figures they too can cough now that the silence has been broken. I've started a few myself, but never intentionally participated in one.



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25 Apr 2008, 2:43 pm

IdahoRose wrote:
I doubt yawning is an empathetic thing, because I have almost no sense of empathy and yet I yawn like crazy whenever somebody else does it. Also... I yawn when I read about yawning. Anybody else start yawning while reading/responding to this thread? :lol:



Yawning is physiological, not pyschological.



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25 Apr 2008, 2:46 pm

The communicability of the social yawn is well documented. Nonetheless, it seems like whatever circuitry that runs on it is disconnected from empathy (I heard someone shamelessly speculate that it was supposed to help unconsciously coordinate group sleep patterns in which case it seems to serve a function somewhat more elementary than what empathy does; yay for pseudoscience)


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25 Apr 2008, 2:49 pm

I tend to yawn a lot, as well.


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25 Apr 2008, 3:12 pm

still haven't yawned

:S


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25 Apr 2008, 3:59 pm

twoshots wrote:
(I heard someone shamelessly speculate that it was supposed to help unconsciously coordinate group sleep patterns in which case it seems to serve a function somewhat more elementary than what empathy does; yay for pseudoscience)


I know Bill Nye was giving that theory not too long ago, on some website. I didn't even know he was still around :oops:



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25 Apr 2008, 4:58 pm

I love Bill Nye *starts singing Bill Nye theme song*


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25 Apr 2008, 5:11 pm

twoshots wrote:
The communicability of the social yawn is well documented. Nonetheless, it seems like whatever circuitry that runs on it is disconnected from empathy (I heard someone shamelessly speculate that it was supposed to help unconsciously coordinate group sleep patterns in which case it seems to serve a function somewhat more elementary than what empathy does; yay for pseudoscience)
:roll:

Got any links to back this up?



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25 Apr 2008, 5:21 pm

Quote:
Abstract

Yawning is contagious: Watching another person yawn may trigger us to do the same. Here we studied brain activation with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while subjects watched videotaped yawns. Significant increases in the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal, specific to yawn viewing as contrasted to viewing non-nameable mouth movements, were observed in the right posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS) and bilaterally in the anterior STS, in agreement with the high affinity of STS to social cues. However, no additional yawn-specific activation was observed in Broca's area, the core region of the human mirror-neuron system (MNS) that matches action observation and execution. Thus, activation associated with viewing another person yawn seems to circumvent the essential parts of the MNS, in line with the nature of contagious yawns as automatically released behavioural acts—rather than truly imitated motor patterns that would require detailed action understanding. The subjects' self-reported tendency to yawn covaried negatively with activation of the left periamygdalar region, suggesting a connection between yawn contagiousness and amygdalar activation.


"Yearning to Yawn", NeuroImage, Volume 24, Issue 4, 15 February 2005, Pages 1260-1264, obtained through Science Direct

Emphasis added


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25 Apr 2008, 6:51 pm

twoshots wrote:
Quote:
Abstract

Yawning is contagious: Watching another person yawn may trigger us to do the same. Here we studied brain activation with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while subjects watched videotaped yawns. Significant increases in the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal, specific to yawn viewing as contrasted to viewing non-nameable mouth movements, were observed in the right posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS) and bilaterally in the anterior STS, in agreement with the high affinity of STS to social cues. However, no additional yawn-specific activation was observed in Broca's area, the core region of the human mirror-neuron system (MNS) that matches action observation and execution. Thus, activation associated with viewing another person yawn seems to circumvent the essential parts of the MNS, in line with the nature of contagious yawns as automatically released behavioural acts—rather than truly imitated motor patterns that would require detailed action understanding. The subjects' self-reported tendency to yawn covaried negatively with activation of the left periamygdalar region, suggesting a connection between yawn contagiousness and amygdalar activation.


"Yearning to Yawn", NeuroImage, Volume 24, Issue 4, 15 February 2005, Pages 1260-1264, obtained through Science Direct

Emphasis added


What is your profession?



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27 Apr 2008, 1:22 pm

I yawn when I'm bored and when in a closed room.


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27 Apr 2008, 7:24 pm

D1nk0 wrote:
twoshots wrote:
Quote:
Abstract

Yawning is contagious: Watching another person yawn may trigger us to do the same. Here we studied brain activation with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while subjects watched videotaped yawns. Significant increases in the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal, specific to yawn viewing as contrasted to viewing non-nameable mouth movements, were observed in the right posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS) and bilaterally in the anterior STS, in agreement with the high affinity of STS to social cues. However, no additional yawn-specific activation was observed in Broca's area, the core region of the human mirror-neuron system (MNS) that matches action observation and execution. Thus, activation associated with viewing another person yawn seems to circumvent the essential parts of the MNS, in line with the nature of contagious yawns as automatically released behavioural acts—rather than truly imitated motor patterns that would require detailed action understanding. The subjects' self-reported tendency to yawn covaried negatively with activation of the left periamygdalar region, suggesting a connection between yawn contagiousness and amygdalar activation.


"Yearning to Yawn", NeuroImage, Volume 24, Issue 4, 15 February 2005, Pages 1260-1264, obtained through Science Direct

Emphasis added



What is your profession?


Is that relevant? :P

I mean, I'm not actually sure which part of my original post you were questioning. I covered at least in that abstract that yawning was contagious (which seemed to contradict your original thesis). I grabbed the first article I saw which supported that, and highlighted the information on Brocas area due to the fact that it being "the core region of the human mirror-neuron system" caught my eye because I remembered that mirror neurons are related to empathy; furthermore (at least according to wikipedia...) Brocas area is located in the inferior frontal gyrus which (also according to wikipedia) shows less activity in people with HFA, and hence it related to the idea that empathy was not necessarily relevant in the "social yawn".

That gets me strong evidence for my first point (I mean, I think NeuroImage is a peer reviewed journal and on top of that the communicability for social yawning was mentioned without citation indicating common knowledge; I've heard of it elsewhere, too) and a wee bit of support for my guess.

As for the speculation as to the function of the "social yawn", I mentioned pretty clearly that I wasn't giving it much credence...


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