Nairalanders,av been doing some researches on yawning and wat i discovered is dat yawning is infectious,dats my propounded theory,so b4 i pass it into law i wu'd need d help of brilliant n "intelligent" nairalanders by doin dis-if u r in a group or a room filled wit people just b observant,when u yawn or sum1 aroud does just look round n see if sum1 else yawns.tnx 4 being part of a new law in medicine,waitin 4 al ur replys.

Guy, thanks 4 dat ur observation. I've always noticed dat 2 bt i thought it's jos my imagination bt wit dis now it confirmed my observation. so i concur

yeah its part of the mirror-nueron system in the brain. scientist have known this for a long long time. good to see you have caught up with us


"Contagious yawning, the onset of a yawn triggered by seeing, hearing, reading, or thinking about another person yawn is a well-documented phenomenon. The mechanisms that drive contagious yawning are as yet unknown, but there is recent evidence of a link between contagious yawning and self-processing (S.M. Platek, S.R. Critton, T.E. Myers, G.G. Gallup Jr., Contagious yawning: the role of self-awareness and mental state attribution, Cogn. Brain Res. 17 (2003) 223–227.) that is negatively impacted by schizotypal personality traits. The neural substrates involved in contagious yawning, however, are unknown. Here, using fMRI, we show that viewing someone yawn evokes unique neural activity in the posterior cingulate and precuneus. Because of the role these areas play in self-processing (e.g., self-referential processing, theory of mind, autobiographical memory), our findings provide further support for the hypothesis that contagious yawning may be part of a neural network involved in empathy." - Department of Psychology, Drexel University

yeeeeeeeeeeeee!ooparrrrrrrrrriiiiiiii! please find out if polluting is contagious

@ agathamari,thanks 4 d "enlightening info",by d way are u a medical doctor or a scientist? and if the neurals 4 contagious yawning are not known can't we probe in n try 2 know them?and also thanks 4 d referals.
@ anabel,its not finished ooooo, and 4 ur suggestion on polluting "we" will try and look into it.more replies needed.later people.

conserved:

@ agathamari,thanks 4 d "enlightening info",by d way are u a medical doctor or a scientist? and if the neurals 4 contagious yawning are not known can't we probe in n try 2 know them?and also thanks 4 d referals.

  no im not a dr i just have a good education, im actualy a teacher.  the human body has not been study for very long.  the first person to even disect a body in modern times was da vinci.  since then there are great breakthroughs in science but studing a dead body doesnt give much insight into the brain and studing on a live person is very dificult.  since the brain isnt well maped and differs slightly from person to person, cutting into a persons brain to "poke around" isnt feasable and MRI and similar technology is being used for more pressing issues then why we yawn.  After Dr. Aribert Heim, Dr. Eduard Wirths and Dr Josef Mengele did thier famous experiments the way research is now conducted has changed.  though vast amounts of informantion came from them, their techinques were barbaric and inhuman thus researchers now are extremly careful of the effect on thier subjects