Title

Acute Physical Stress Modulates the Temporal Expression of Self-Reported Contagious Yawning in Humans

Authors

Omar Tonsi Eldakar, Nova Southeastern UniversityFollow
Jaime Tartar, Nova Southeastern UniversityFollow
Daniel Garcia, Nova Southeastern UniversityFollow
Valentina Ramirez, Nova Southeastern UniversityFollow
Melissa Dauzonne, Nova Southeastern UniversityFollow
Yana Armani, Nova Southeastern University
Andrew C. Gallup, State University of New York

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-2017

Publication Title

Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology

Keywords

Arousal, Cortisol, Stress, Yawning, Thermoregulation

ISSN

2198-7335

Volume

3

Issue/No.

2

First Page

156

Last Page

170

Abstract

A growing number of studies on non-human animals have documented that stressors modulate the expression of yawning. In particular, recent experimental research shows that yawns are initially inhibited following physical stress, but then become potentiated thereafter. However, stress-induced yawning in humans has yet to be demonstrated experimentally. Here, we investigated the temporal relationship between self-reported contagious yawning and an acute physical stressor in 141 human subjects in the laboratory. Using a 2 × 2 between-subjects design, participants either underwent the cold pressor test (CPT) or a matched control condition prior to viewing a contagious yawning stimulus that was either displayed immediately thereafter or following a 20-min delay. Consistent with the comparative literature, we show an interaction between stress and time conditions, whereby both the incidence and frequency of yawning are lowest in the immediate-CPT trials and highest in the delayed-CPT trials. These findings support a homologous effect of acute physical stress on yawning across birds and mammals that may be related to an adaptive thermoregulatory and arousal function.

Comments

The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s40750-017-0060-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

NSUWorks Citation

Eldakar, Omar Tonsi; Jaime Tartar; Daniel Garcia; Valentina Ramirez; Melissa Dauzonne; Yana Armani; and Andrew C. Gallup. 2017. "Acute Physical Stress Modulates the Temporal Expression of Self-Reported Contagious Yawning in Humans." Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology 3, (2): 156-170. doi:10.1007/s40750-017-0060-5.

ORCID ID

0000-0002-4807-4979, 0000-0002-3452-0579

DOI

10.1007/s40750-017-0060-5