Punishment-induced
fear modifies the daily course of yawning in
rats
Alejandro Moyaho &
Jaime Valencia
Laboratorio
de la Conducta. Instituto de Fisiología.
Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de
Puebla. Puebla, México
A standing issue in the
study of yawning behaviour is to understand the
way external factors may modify it. This study
investigated whether response-dependent
punishment or random punishment decreased
yawning by the application of buzzer noise
paired with electric shocks in a high-yawning
strain of Sprague-Dawley male rats. Yawn rate
increased daily in response to the experimental
cage, and also to the buzzer noise. Two
alternate periods of no punishment and
punishment were followed by a final period of
buzzer noise occurring alone. Punishment did not
diminish yawning significantly in either
condition although yawn rate increased in the
following period of no punishment and in the
buzzer-noise period, relative to the period of
yawn-dependent punishment. Yawn rate increased
in the buzzer-noise period relative to the first
period of no punishment and first period of
random punishment. These findings indicate that
there are constraints that impede the
suppression of yawning using punishment, and
that yawning is an after response to fear
produced by response-dependent punishment..
