The Yawn Explained: It Cools Your Brain

According to Discovery News a new study has gone out on why people yawn and they found out that the primary purpose of yawning is to control brain temperature.

"Brains are like computers,"

Andrew Gallup, a researcher in the Department of Biology at Binghamton University who led the study, told Discovery News.

"They operate most efficiently when cool, and physical adaptations have evolved to allow maximum cooling of the brain."

Several new studies have been done to solve the world renound mystery of why people yawn, and those studies have shown that the main reason for that contagous yawn is to cotrol your brain temperature. Researchers at the Department of Biology at Binghamton University and their colleagues Michael Miller and Anne Clark analyzed yawning in parakeets as representative vertebrates because they have relativley large brains and live in wild Australia which goes through many temperature changes, and they do not engage in contagous yawning like humans. Contagous yawning is thought to be a mechanism for keeping groups alert so they, remain vigilant against danger, Gallup said. For the study the scientists expolsed parkeets to three different conditions: increasing temperature, high temperature and a moderate control temperature. A paper on the findings has been accepted for publication in the journal Animal Behavior.

"Based on the brain cooling hypothesis, we suggest that there should be a thermal window in which yawning should occur," Gallup said

For example, you should not yawn when ambient temperature exceeds body temperature as taking a deep inhalation of warm air would be counterproductive. Yawning when it is extreamly cold may be maladaptive, because this may send unusually cold air to the brain, which could
produce a thermal shock.
I always thought that the reason for yawning was because the oxygen in your blood was low I never thought that it was to cool your brain it is mind boggling to say the least. I never thought that parakeets would be a good test subject to test the weather conditions either. It makes me want to yawn right now just typing about it.