Elsevier

Animal Behaviour

Volume 187, May 2022, Pages 209-219
Animal Behaviour

Review
The causes and consequences of yawning in animal groups

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2022.03.011Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • Yawning is a highly conserved neurophysiological adaptation among vertebrates.

  • The detection of yawning appears to be biologically important in social species.

  • The observation of yawning in conspecifics selectively enhances vigilance.

  • Yawn contagion appears to function in promoting motor synchrony in groups.

Yawning is a stereotyped action pattern that is prevalent across vertebrates. While there is growing consensus on the physiological functions of spontaneous yawning in neurovascular circulation and brain cooling, far less is known about how the act of yawning alters the cognition and behaviour of observers. By bridging and synthesizing a wide range of literature, this review attempts to provide a unifying framework for understanding the evolution and elaboration of derived features of yawning in social vertebrates. Recent studies in animal behaviour, psychology and neuroscience now provide evidence that yawns serve as a cue that improves the vigilance of observers, and that contagious yawning functions to synchronize and/or coordinate group activity patterns. These social responses to yawning align with research on the physiological significance of this behaviour, as well as the ubiquitous temporal and contextual variation in yawn frequency across mammals and birds. In addition, these changes in mental processing and behaviour resulting from the detection of yawning in others are consistent with variability in the expression of yawn contagion based on affinity and social status in primates. Topics for further research in these areas are discussed.

Keywords

arousal
circadian rhythms
collective behaviour
motor synchrony
state change
stress
thermoregulation
vigilance

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