Yawning Helps Keep the Brain Cool: Study

Go ahead and enjoy yawning. A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Vienna, Austria, and the Nova Southeastern University and SUNY College at Oneonta found that this activity actually helps build oxygen levels in the brain that cool the organ's temperature.

In fact, lead study author and psychologist Andrew Gallup of SUNY believes that yawning helps reduce stress levels, cortical arousal and promotes healthy sleep cycles in the organ, pushing for optimal homeostasis.

Researchers believe that yawning can easily manipulate ambient temperature variation, pushing for cool ambient air temperature that may facilitate lowering brain temperature. 

Researchers Jorg Massen and Kim Dusch of the University of Vienna set out to measure the contagiousness of yawning frequencies for pedestrians outdoor in Vienna, Austria, during the winter and summer months. Next, they compared the results to an identical study conducted earlier in Arizona. Study participants were asked a series of questions in which they were asked to view images of people yawning and self-report on their own yawning patterns.

Results note the following, courtesy of a press release: "Vienna people yawned more in summer than in winter, whereas in Arizona people yawned more in winter than in summer. It turned out that it was not the seasons themselves, nor the amount of daylight hours experienced, but that contagious yawning was constrained to an optimal thermal zone or range of ambient temperatures around 20o C. In contrast, contagious yawning diminished when temperatures were relatively high at around 37o C in the summer of Arizona or low and around freezing in the winter of Vienna. Lead author Jorg Massen explains that where yawning functions to cool the brain, yawning is not functional when ambient temperatures are as hot as the body, and may not be necessary or may even have harmful consequences when it is freezing outside."

As yawning is often thought of as being contagious, researchers believe future study may reveal underlying mechanisms for yawning that help to improve arousal and mental efficiency, as well. 

What do you think?

More information regarding the findings can be seen via the journal Physiology & Behavior.