Commentary: Yawning, acute stressors, and arousal reduction in Nazca booby adults and nestlings

Gallup, Andrew C.; Clark, Anne B.

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01654

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 9 publications

(11 reference statements)

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“…These findings can be readily interpreted under the functional hypotheses of arousal and state change (Baenninger, 1997;Provine, 1986;2005), whereby greater neurological volumes and more cortical neurons necessitate longer yawns to achieve these adaptive outcomes. Although social and communicative (i.e., signaling) functions of yawning have been proposed (e.g., Liang, Grace, Tompkins, & Anderson, 2015), empirical tests of this hypothesis are lacking (Gallup & Clark, 2015) and the current findings provide no clear connection between yawn duration and the degree of sociality within the species sampled.…”

Section: !contrasting

confidence: 65%

Yawn Duration Predicts Brain Size in Wild Cats (Felidae)

Gallup¹,

Crowe²,

Yanchus³

2017

IJCP

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Recently, yawn duration was shown to be a robust predictor of brain size and complexity across a diverse sample of mammalian species. In particular, mammals with larger brains and more cortical neurons have longer yawns on average. Here, we investigated whether this relationship between yawn duration and brain size, which was previously at the taxonomic rank of class, is also present within a more restricted scale: a family of mammals. Using previously published data on brain weight and endocranial volumes among various field species within the family Felidae, we ran correlations with yawn durations obtained from openly accessible videos on the Internet. Consistent with previous findings, we show a strong linear relationship between yawn duration and both brain weight and brain volumes among wild cats. However, yawn duration was not significantly correlated with species body weight. Although limited to a small sample, these results provide convergent evidence for an important and general neurophysiologic function to yawning and highlight the utility of measuring yawn duration in comparative research.

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Section: !contrasting

confidence: 65%

Yawn Duration Predicts Brain Size in Wild Cats (Felidae)

Gallup¹,

Crowe²,

Yanchus³

2017

IJCP

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“…Multiple functions are possible, whereby yawning could provide thermoregulatory benefits and serve as a signal to conspecifics. However, aside from direct threat yawns with canine displays in non-human primates, there is currently no evidence that yawns provide a meaningful signal to receivers (see Gallup and Clark 2015). For example, group members do not appear to orient towards or respond to yawns of others, and it is not clear what communicative benefits there would be to yawning.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acute Physical Stress Modulates the Temporal Expression of Self-Reported Contagious Yawning in Humans

Eldakar

Tartar

Garcia

et al. 2017

Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology

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A growing number of studies on non-human animals have documented that stressors modulate the expression of yawning. In particular, recent experimental research shows that yawns are initially inhibited following physical stress, but then become potentiated thereafter. However, stress-induced yawning in humans has yet to be demonstrated experimentally. Here, we investigated the temporal relationship between self-reported contagious yawning and an acute physical stressor in 141 human subjects in the laboratory. Using a 2 × 2 between-subjects design, participants either underwent the cold pressor test (CPT) or a matched control condition prior to viewing a contagious yawning stimulus that was either displayed immediately thereafter or following a 20-min delay. Consistent with the comparative literature, we show an interaction between stress and time conditions, whereby both the incidence and frequency of yawning are lowest in the immediate-CPT trials and highest in the delayed-CPT trials. These findings support a homologous effect of acute physical stress on yawning across birds and mammals that may be related to an adaptive thermoregulatory and arousal function.

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“…Some researchers have therefore speculated that yawning serves a primary communicative role, in which yawns signal internal states to others 33,34 . However, a central signaling perspective fails to take into account that spontaneous yawns are widespread among solitary species, and often occur when alone even among gregarious animals 11,35 . Moreover, yawns are triggered by a multitude of factors, and are associated with a markedly variable array of contexts, stimuli and internal states (i.e., not just when we are bored or sleepy) 7,36 , and as a result could not serve as reliable signals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contagious yawning in virtual reality is affected by actual, but not simulated, social presence

Gallup

Vasilyev

Anderson

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

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Contagious yawning occurs in humans and a few other highly social animals following the detection of yawns in others, yet the factors influencing the propagation of this response remain largely unknown. Stemming from earlier laboratory research, we conducted five experiments to investigate the effects of social presence on contagious yawning in virtual reality (VR). We show that, similar to a traditional laboratory setting, having a researcher present during testing significantly inhibited contagious yawning in VR, even though participants were viewing a virtual environment and unable to see the researcher. Unlike previous research, however, manipulating the social presence in VR (i.e., embedding recording devices and humanoid avatars within the simulation) did not affect contagious yawning. These experiments provide further evidence that social presence is a powerful deterrent of yawning in humans, which warrants further investigation. More generally, these findings also have important applications for the use of VR in psychological research. While participants were quite sensitive to social stimuli presented in VR, as evidenced by contagious yawning, our results suggest a major difference in the influence of social factors within real-world and virtual environments. That is, social cues in actual reality appear to dominate and supersede those in VR.

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Commentary: Yawning, acute stressors, and arousal reduction in Nazca booby adults and nestlings

Cited by 8 publications

References 9 publications

Yawn Duration Predicts Brain Size in Wild Cats (Felidae)

Yawn Duration Predicts Brain Size in Wild Cats (Felidae)

Acute Physical Stress Modulates the Temporal Expression of Self-Reported Contagious Yawning in Humans

Contagious yawning in virtual reality is affected by actual, but not simulated, social presence

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