- Tous
les articles sur la contagion du
bâillement
- All
articles about contagious
yawning
-
- Abstract
- This protocol describes a laboratory-based
experimental method for investigating whether
exposure to contagious yawning stimuli is
associated with measurable changes in subjective
and physiological markers of sleepiness. The
protocol employs a randomized within-subject
crossover design comparing human versus digital
character yawning stimuli, each presented with
and without auditory cues. The method integrates
validated subjective sleepiness assessments with
multimodal physiological sensing including
cardiovascular, electrodermal, pupillary,
thermal, and neural activity measures.
-
- This protocol addresses a methodological gap
in yawning research by shifting focus from
yawning occurrence to downstream
sleepiness-related state changes associated with
yawning stimuli exposure, while also examining
whether digitally presented yawning is
comparable to human yawning.
-
- Résumé
- Protocole expérimental
standardisé pour évaluer la
somnolence associée à l'exposition
à des stimuli de bâillement
contagieux
- Ce protocole décrit une
méthode expérimentale en
laboratoire visant à déterminer si
l'exposition à des stimuli de
bâillement contagieux est associée
à des changements mesurables des
marqueurs subjectifs et physiologiques de la
somnolence. Le protocole utilise un plan
croisé randomisé intra-sujet
comparant des stimuli de bâillements
humains à des stimuli de
bâillements générés
par des personnages numériques, chacun
étant présenté avec ou sans
repères auditifs. La méthode
intègre des évaluations
subjectives validées de la somnolence
à des mesures physiologiques
multimodales, notamment des mesures de
l'activité cardiovasculaire,
électrodermique, pupillaire, thermique et
neuronale.
-
- Ce protocole comble une lacune
méthodologique dans la recherche sur le
bâillement en déplaçant
l'attention de la survenue du bâillement
vers les changements d'état liés
à la somnolence en aval, associés
à l'exposition à des stimuli de
bâillement, tout en examinant si le
bâillement présenté
numériquement est comparable au
bâillement humain.
-
-
- Background
- Yawning is a ubiquitous human behavior that
has been studied across both animal and human
research contexts [1,2]. Beyond
occurring spontaneously, yawning is socially
contagious. Observing or hearing others yawn
reliably increases the likelihood of yawning in
the observer [[3], [4],
[5]]. Contagious yawning has been
linked to social cognition, empathy, and
physiological regulation [3], and its
neural mechanisms have been examined in both
animals and humans [4,5]. Functional MRI
research has implicated regions associated with
social cognition and self-referential
processing, including the medial prefrontal
cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, and
precuneus [[4], [5],
[6]], as well as areas involved in
attention and motor resonance. These findings
suggest that contagious yawning engages networks
related to both social processing and state
regulation. This neurophysiological perspective
motivates the inclusion of functional
near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) in the
present study to assess prefrontal cortical
activity during exposure to yawning
stimuli.
-
- Beyond its neural basis, a substantial body
of research has also advanced our understanding
of the physiological functions of yawning. In
particular, the thermoregulatory or "brain
cooling" hypothesis proposes that yawning serves
to regulate brain temperature and maintain
optimal neural functioning, with converging
evidence from both animal and human studies
[[7], [8], [9],
[10]]. This perspective highlights
the close relationship between yawning, arousal
regulation, and physiological state
changes.
-
- Consistent with this view, experimental
studies have examined how exposure to yawning
stimuli influences behavior and cognition. For
example, recent studies have demonstrated that
viewing yawning stimuli can enhance vigilance
and threat detection performance, such as
improved detection of biologically relevant
stimuli including snakes and spiders
[[11], [12],
[13]]. At the same time, yawning is
commonly associated with fatigue, drowsiness,
and transitions toward sleep
[2,[14], [15],
[16]], and prior studies have
explored subjective sleepiness in relation to
yawning behavior [2,14,15]. These
findings suggest that yawning is closely linked
to fluctuations in arousal, though its precise
role in modulating internal states remains
complex.
-
- Yawning contagion is also multimodal.
Although visual stimuli have been the most
commonly studied, auditory contagious yawning
has likewise been reported, with yawning sounds
alone capable of eliciting yawning responses in
listeners [17,18]. In addition, previous
work has suggested that olfactory cues may
contribute to yawning contagion, which further
underscores the multimodal nature of this
phenomenon [19]. These findings indicate
that yawning can function as a socially
transmitted cue across multiple sensory
channels. In the present protocol, we focus
specifically on visual and auditory yawning
stimuli, while olfactory stimuli are not
examined and are left for future
investigation.
-
- Despite these advances, comparatively fewer
studies have systematically examined how
exposure to yawning stimuli relates to
integrated, multimodal changes in sleepiness and
physiological arousal. Existing research has
often focused on either behavioral outcomes
(e.g., yawning occurrence or vigilance
performance) or isolated measures of sleepiness,
which limit the ability to characterize how
yawning stimuli are associated with internal
states across subjective and physiological
domains simultaneously. A multimodal approach
combining behavioral, subjective, and
physiological measures may therefore provide a
more comprehensive understanding of state
changes related to exposure to contagious
yawning stimuli.
-
- At the same time, contemporary
human&endash;computer interaction increasingly
involves digital agents, avatars, and animated
representations of human behavior. Advances in
AI and computer graphics have enabled these
systems to display human-like expressions and
social cues, and they are now widely deployed in
digital health, education, customer support, and
other interactive environments [20,21].
Such systems often rely on subtle behavioral
signals to influence user engagement, affect,
and cognitive state. Within this context,
yawning represents a particularly intriguing but
underexplored behavioral cue.
-
- Previous studies have demonstrated that
digitally presented yawning videos can elicit
contagious yawning responses in humans
[22,23], and even across species, such
as in chimpanzees and orangutans exposed to
digital or android yawning stimuli
[24,25]. However, it remains unclear
whether digitally presented yawning stimuli,
particularly those generated by animal
characters, are associated with
sleepiness-related responses when assessed using
multimodal psychophysiological measures.
-
- Understanding whether exposure to yawning
stimuli is associated with changes in sleepiness
has important implications for both sleep
research and the design of technologies intended
to modulate arousal or relaxation [2].
Accordingly, this study seeks to advance this
line of research by examining yawning videos
featuring either humans or digital characters,
presented with and without auditory cues, and
assessing their associations with subjective and
physiological indicators of sleepiness under
controlled conditions. The protocol was
developed to investigate four research
questions: (1) whether exposure to human yawning
videos is associated with sleepiness-related
responses, (2) whether digital character yawning
elicits comparable effects, (3) whether auditory
yawning cues modulate these responses, and (4)
how individual differences influence these
associations.
|
