BU’s Simon Thompson appears in NewScientist Magazine

Bournemouth University’s Simon Thompson recently wrote an article on the science of yawning for NewScientist Magazine.

The clinical psychology and neurology professor accessed some of the theories surrounding yawning – including its links to boredom and concentration.

Yawning, Dr Thompson says, has been said to “help us focus on a task” and might “explain why parachutists are encouraged to yawn before they leap”.

In 2007, thoughts that yawning was a mechanism to cool the brain emerged, and Thompson says that “this fits with [his] observations of people with multiple sclerosis, who often yawn a great deal when they are tired”.

“The temperature of the brain rises when we are fatigued, so it is possible that yawning is a mechanism to protect the game from overheating due to tiredness”, Thompson said.

There may also be a link between yawning and concentration, “yawning seems to raise cortisol levels… and in doing so protects the body by stimulating the production of adrenaline to make us more alert”; although Thompson also said that “this idea has not been tested”.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of yawning though is its infectiousness: “It’s possible that contagious yawning is something different, and might instead have a social purpose”, added Thompson, “I suspect that the social drivers of yawning can override the physiological ones…”

The article first appeared in NewScientist on December 20th, and is available online.