The TMS measures proved to be significant predictors of contagious yawning and demonstrated that each individuals's propensity for contagious yawning is determined by cortical excitability and physiological inhibiton of the primary motor cortext. TMS was used to quantify motor cortical excitability and physiological inhibition for each participant and predict the propensity for contagious yawning across all the volunteers. In Tourettes if we could reduce the excitability we might reduce the tics and that's what we are working on.' Using electrical stimulation we were able to increase excitability and in doing so increase the propensity for contagious yawning. Georgina Jackson, Professor of Cognitive Neuropsychology in the Institute of Mental Health, said: 'This research has shown that the 'urge' is increased by trying to stop yourself.

And it's not just humans who have a propensity for contagious yawning - chimpanzees and dogs do it too. He said: 'We suggest that these findings may be particularly important in understanding further the association between motor excitability and the occurrence of echophenomena in a wide range of clinical conditions that have been linked to increased cortical excitability and/or decreased physiological inhibition such as epilepsy, dementia, autism, and Tourette syndrome.'Ĭontagious yawning is triggered involuntarily when we observe another person yawn - it is a common form of echophenomena - the automatic imitation of another's words (echolalia) or actions (echopraxia). Stephen Jackson, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, in the School of Psychology, led the multidisciplinary study. Importantly, they have discovered that the urge to yawn - our propensity for contagious yawning - is individual to each one of us. But, no matter how hard we try to stifle a yawn, it might change how we yawn but it won't alter our propensity to yawn. And our urge to yawn is increased if we are instructed to resist yawning.

Their latest findings show that our ability to resist yawning when someone else near us yawns is limited. It is another stage in their research into the underlying biology of neuropsychiatric disorders and their search for new methods of treatment. Their study - 'A neural basis for contagious yawning' - has been published in the academic journal Current Biology.

Yawn sound word