# yawning cools the brain

**URL:** <https://pheromonetalk.com/t/yawning-cools-the-brain/4569>\
**Category:** Lounge\
**Created:** [July 9, 2007, 10:43pm UTC](https://pheromonetalk.com/t/yawning-cools-the-brain/4569 "2007-07-09T22:43:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
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**Author:** ![PheroQuirk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9e8a1a/32.png) [@PheroQuirk](https://pheromonetalk.com/u/PheroQuirk)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2007, 10:43pm UTC](https://pheromonetalk.com/t/yawning-cools-the-brain/4569/1 "2007-07-09T22:43:35Z")

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[FuturePundit: Yawning Cools Brain?](http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/004378.html)

There is some talk also that some facial expressions are designed at some level to facilitate brain cooling

[Search Engines: Counterpoints The power of positive faces Independent, The (London) - Find Articles](http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20000206/ai_n14287472)

Yawning Cools Brain?

[Yawning is not contagious for those with cooler brains.](http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19426104.400-yawning-may-boost-brains-alertness.html)Fifty per cent of people told to breathe normally or through their mouths yawned while watching other people yawn, while none of those told to breathe through their noses yawned. The researchers also found that subjects who held a cold pack to their forehead did not catch yawns from the film, while those who held a warm or room-temperature pack yawned normally (_Evolutionary Psychology_, vol 5, p 92).  
Breathing through your nose cools blood flowing to the brain. Would breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth do a better job of cooling the brain by venting the warmer air from the lungs away from the nose and brain?

Yawning supposedly increases group vigilance. Our hunter ancestors either on stake-out or perhaps manning defense perimeters around camps might have needed to yawn in unison to keep their minds alert to prey or predators. [Cooling overheated brains increases their efficiency and hence the yawns.](http://www.albany.edu/campusnews/releases_368.htm)ALBANY, N.Y. (June 29, 2007) – The next time you “catch a yawn” from someone across the room, you’re not copying their sleepiness, you’re participating in an ancient, hardwired ritual that might have evolved to help groups stay alert as a means of detecting danger. That’s the conclusion of University at Albany researchers Andrew C. Gallup and Gordon G. Gallup Jr. in a study outlined in the May 2007 issue of _Evolutionary Psychology_ (Volume 5.1., 2007).

The psychologists, who studied yawning in college students, concluded that people do not yawn because they need oxygen, since experiments show that raising or lowering oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood fails to produce the reaction. Rather, yawning acts as a brain-cooling mechanism. The brain burns up to a third of the calories we consume, and as a consequence generates heat. According to Gallup and Gallup, our brains, not unlike computers, operate more efficiently when cool, and yawning enhances the brain’s functioning by increasing blood flow and drawing in cooler air.  
Has the need to dissipate heat slowed the evolution of human intelligence just as heat dissipation problems are slowing the rate of advance of modern computer microprocessor speeds?  
These results suggest easy practical ways to boost mental performance:

1. Turn down office thermostats in summer and winter so that people wear sweaters to keep their torsos warm while keeping their brains cool. Higher mental performance might more than pay back the higher cost of air conditioning in summers. During winters the lower thermostats will save money too.
2. A cold pack worn on your forehead might boost your mental performance when you are lagging. But how cold is optimal?
3. When you feel like yawning do not suppress it. In fact, when you feel the slightest desire to yawn you might want to take steps to cool your brain.
4. Got a cold drink in your hand and your brain lagging? Put the drink up against your forehead.  
By Randall Parker 2007 July 08 05:31 PM [Brain Enhancement](http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/cat_brain_enhancement.html)  
[Entry Permalink](http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/004378.html) | [Comments ( 4 )](http://www.futurepundit.com/mt/mt-altcomments.cgi?entry_id=4378)

WE SMILE when we are happy and frown when miserable. What could be more obvious? Yet it has now been suggested that the reverse could be true, and that it is the grinning that triggers a sense of wellbeing, and frowning that puts us in a bad mood.  
This latest theory, put forward by Professor Zajonc, a psychologist at Stanford University, was prompted by considering the way our facial muscles affect the blood flow between the face and the brain. Why is it, for instance, that we furrow our brow when concentrating? Could it be that contracting this muscle in the forehead diverts blood flow from the face to the brain, so improving brain function when we need it most? The effects are more easily observable in extreme emotional states, for example when we are blushing or crying.

This led Professor Zajonc to thinking about how our 80-odd facial muscles, which have a rich blood supply, affect brain temperature. The brain uses its blood supply as a heat exchange system, with the nose acting as air- cooled ventilation rather as a car engine uses the water pipes in a radiator. Indeed, because the metabolic activity of the brain produces considerable heat, the brain requires continuous cooling to maintain normal function. Most facial expressions alter nasal architecture and therefore the amount of air passing through, in turn determining how much the blood to the brain is cooled.

Professor Zajonc has shown, in a series of experiments, that asking volunteers to adopt facial expressions associated with negative moods (for example saying the phoneme “u”, as in due) constricts the nose, reducing air- flow and so raising brain temperature, which in turn soon produces negative emotions. Similarly, sustaining the facial expressions most associated with positive moods (achieved in the experiments by asking volunteers to say “e” as in cheese) increases nasal airflow by about 20 per cent, which in turn cools the brain and soon reliably upturns mood.  
There is a good evolutionary argument for why our expressions should affect mood. If someone laughs, for instance, we tend to smile or laugh in response. This not only allows us to feel what they are experiencing but also facilitates communication and bonding. Mimicry is a strong tendency in humans, and has been observed in babies only 11 days old.  
Ancient practices like yoga are based on the idea that muscle action influences mood, and it is worth noting that smiling uses fewer muscles than frowning. This could explain why miserable people tend to look older than those with naturally happy dispositions.

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**Author:** ![noblelady](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/pheromonetalk.com/noblelady/32/2391_2.png) [@noblelady](https://pheromonetalk.com/u/noblelady)\
**Post date:** [July 24, 2007, 4:20am UTC](https://pheromonetalk.com/t/yawning-cools-the-brain/4569/2 "2007-07-24T04:20:05Z")

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> [@PheroQuirk](#):
>
> [FuturePundit: Yawning Cools Brain?](http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/004378.html)
> 
> There is some talk also that some facial expressions are designed at some level to facilitate brain cooling
> 
> [Search Engines: Counterpoints The power of positive faces Independent, The (London) - Find Articles](http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20000206/ai_n14287472)
> 
> Yawning Cools Brain?
> 
> [Yawning is not contagious for those with cooler brains.](http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19426104.400-yawning-may-boost-brains-alertness.html)Fifty per cent of people told to breathe normally or through their mouths yawned while watching other people yawn, while none of those told to breathe through their noses yawned. The researchers also found that subjects who held a cold pack to their forehead did not catch yawns from the film, while those who held a warm or room-temperature pack yawned normally (_Evolutionary Psychology_, vol 5, p 92). Breathing through your nose cools blood flowing to the brain. Would breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth do a better job of cooling the brain by venting the warmer air from the lungs away from the nose and brain?
> 
> Yawning supposedly increases group vigilance. Our hunter ancestors either on stake-out or perhaps manning defense perimeters around camps might have needed to yawn in unison to keep their minds alert to prey or predators. [Cooling overheated brains increases their efficiency and hence the yawns.](http://www.albany.edu/campusnews/releases_368.htm)ALBANY, N.Y. (June 29, 2007) – The next time you “catch a yawn” from someone across the room, you’re not copying their sleepiness, you’re participating in an ancient, hardwired ritual that might have evolved to help groups stay alert as a means of detecting danger. That’s the conclusion of University at Albany researchers Andrew C. Gallup and Gordon G. Gallup Jr. in a study outlined in the May 2007 issue of _Evolutionary Psychology_ (Volume 5.1., 2007).
> 
> The psychologists, who studied yawning in college students, concluded that people do not yawn because they need oxygen, since experiments show that raising or lowering oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood fails to produce the reaction. Rather, yawning acts as a brain-cooling mechanism. The brain burns up to a third of the calories we consume, and as a consequence generates heat. According to Gallup and Gallup, our brains, not unlike computers, operate more efficiently when cool, and yawning enhances the brain’s functioning by increasing blood flow and drawing in cooler air. Has the need to dissipate heat slowed the evolution of human intelligence just as heat dissipation problems are slowing the rate of advance of modern computer microprocessor speeds?  
> These results suggest easy practical ways to boost mental performance:
> 
> 1. Turn down office thermostats in summer and winter so that people wear sweaters to keep their torsos warm while keeping their brains cool. Higher mental performance might more than pay back the higher cost of air conditioning in summers. During winters the lower thermostats will save money too.
> 2. A cold pack worn on your forehead might boost your mental performance when you are lagging. But how cold is optimal?
> 3. When you feel like yawning do not suppress it. In fact, when you feel the slightest desire to yawn you might want to take steps to cool your brain.
> 4. Got a cold drink in your hand and your brain lagging? Put the drink up against your forehead.  
> By Randall Parker 2007 July 08 05:31 PM [Brain Enhancement](http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/cat_brain_enhancement.html)  
> [Entry Permalink](http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/004378.html) | [Comments ( 4 )](http://www.futurepundit.com/mt/mt-altcomments.cgi?entry_id=4378)
> 
> WE SMILE when we are happy and frown when miserable. What could be more obvious? Yet it has now been suggested that the reverse could be true, and that it is the grinning that triggers a sense of wellbeing, and frowning that puts us in a bad mood.  
> This latest theory, put forward by Professor Zajonc, a psychologist at Stanford University, was prompted by considering the way our facial muscles affect the blood flow between the face and the brain. Why is it, for instance, that we furrow our brow when concentrating? Could it be that contracting this muscle in the forehead diverts blood flow from the face to the brain, so improving brain function when we need it most? The effects are more easily observable in extreme emotional states, for example when we are blushing or crying.
> 
> This led Professor Zajonc to thinking about how our 80-odd facial muscles, which have a rich blood supply, affect brain temperature. The brain uses its blood supply as a heat exchange system, with the nose acting as air- cooled ventilation rather as a car engine uses the water pipes in a radiator. Indeed, because the metabolic activity of the brain produces considerable heat, the brain requires continuous cooling to maintain normal function. Most facial expressions alter nasal architecture and therefore the amount of air passing through, in turn determining how much the blood to the brain is cooled.
> 
> Professor Zajonc has shown, in a series of experiments, that asking volunteers to adopt facial expressions associated with negative moods (for example saying the phoneme “u”, as in due) constricts the nose, reducing air- flow and so raising brain temperature, which in turn soon produces negative emotions. Similarly, sustaining the facial expressions most associated with positive moods (achieved in the experiments by asking volunteers to say “e” as in cheese) increases nasal airflow by about 20 per cent, which in turn cools the brain and soon reliably upturns mood.  
> There is a good evolutionary argument for why our expressions should affect mood. If someone laughs, for instance, we tend to smile or laugh in response. This not only allows us to feel what they are experiencing but also facilitates communication and bonding. Mimicry is a strong tendency in humans, and has been observed in babies only 11 days old.  
> Ancient practices like yoga are based on the idea that muscle action influences mood, and it is worth noting that smiling uses fewer muscles than frowning. This could explain why miserable people tend to look older than those with naturally happy dispositions.

There are some real nuggets in here 🙂

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**Author:** ![Mtnjim](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/pheromonetalk.com/mtnjim/32/2010_2.png) [@Mtnjim](https://pheromonetalk.com/u/Mtnjim)\
**Post date:** [July 24, 2007, 7:03pm UTC](https://pheromonetalk.com/t/yawning-cools-the-brain/4569/3 "2007-07-24T19:03:17Z")

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Not to hijack, but just a question out of curiosity. Why do people insist on completely quoting huge posts for a 7 word response? I’ve never understood that.🙂

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**Author:** ![noblelady](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/pheromonetalk.com/noblelady/32/2391_2.png) [@noblelady](https://pheromonetalk.com/u/noblelady)\
**Post date:** [July 24, 2007, 10:11pm UTC](https://pheromonetalk.com/t/yawning-cools-the-brain/4569/4 "2007-07-24T22:11:18Z")

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> [@Mtnjim](#):
>
> Not to hijack, but just a question out of curiosity. Why do people…?.🙂

Oversight perhaps

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mtnjim](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/pheromonetalk.com/mtnjim/32/2010_2.png) [@Mtnjim](https://pheromonetalk.com/u/Mtnjim)\
**Post date:** [July 24, 2007, 11:18pm UTC](https://pheromonetalk.com/t/yawning-cools-the-brain/4569/5 "2007-07-24T23:18:56Z")

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> [@noblelady](#):
>
> Oversight perhaps

That could be it. By the way, I wasn’t pointing you out specifically, a lot of people do it. Huge, huge quote, and their reply? “Good Posting”, right below the original. Oh! The electrons! 🙂