If someone around you yawns, chances are you will too. Did you know that Pandiculation is the term for the act of stretching and yawning? Yawning is a powerful non-verbal message with several possible meanings, depending on the circumstances. It is also claimed to help increase the state of alertness of a person. It could possibly be from lack of oxygen. The exact causes of yawning are still unknown.
According to Wikipedia, “The proximate cause for contagious yawning may lie with mirror neurons, i.e. neurons in the frontal cortex of certain vertebrates, which upon being exposed to a stimulus from conspecific (same species) and occasionally interspecific organisms, activates the same regions in the brain…Yawning may be an offshoot of the same imitative impulse….”
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. All Emilie wants to know is, if yawns are infectious, but does it work with a photo? She will subject you to a series of photos of people yawning. Can you make it through the slideshow without triggering the reflex in yourself to yawn? When you’re done, vote and compare yourself to others who have surfed the same site. Go on. See what you’re missing.
