Department of
Psychology,
University of California at Berkeley Living Links, Yerkes
Primate Center and Psychology Department, Emory
University, Atlanta
Abstract : Contagious yawning is a
common, but poorly understood phenomenon. We
hypothesized that contagious yawning is part of
a more general phenomenon known as mental state
attribution (i.e. the ability to inferentially
model the mental states of others). To test this
hypothesis we compared susceptibility to
contagiously yawn with performance on a
self-face recognition task, several theory of
mind stories, and on a measure of schizotypal
personality traits. Consistent with the
hypothesis, susceptibility to contagiously yawn
was positively related to performance on
self-face recognition and faux pas theory of
mind stories, and negatively related to
schizotypal personality traits. These data
suggest that contagious yawning may be
associated with empathic aspects of mental state
attribution and are negatively affected by
increases in schizotypal personality traits much
like other self-processing related tasks.
1 . Introduction
Contagious yawning, the onset of a yawn
triggered by seeing, hearing, reading, or
thinking about another person yawning, is a
common phenomenon. Here we show that individual
differences in susceptibility to contagious
yawning are related to performance on self-face
recognition and theory of mind story tasks.
We hypothesized that contagious yawning
occurs as a consequence of a theory of mind, the
ability to infer or empathize
with what others want, know, or intend to do.
Seeing or hearing about another person yawn may
tap a primitive neurological substrate
responsible for self-awareness and empathic
modeling which produces a corresponding response
in oneself. To test this hypothesis we examined
susceptibility to contagious yawning with
performance on a self-face recognition task and
several theory of mind stories.
Schizotypal personality traits found in
non-clinical populations that show proximate
similar, but less severe schizophrenic traits
and are negatively correlated with performance
on mental state attribution and self-recognition
tasks, were also measured.
[...]
5 . General discussion
Thus, in contrast to those that were
unaffected by seeing someone yawn, people who
showed contagious yawning identified their own
faces faster, did better at making inferences
about mental states, and exhibited fewer
schizotypal personality characteristics. These
results suggest that contagious yawning might be
related to selfawareness and empathic
processing. Our data also imply that contagious
yawning may reside in brain substrates which
have been implicated in self-recognition and
mental state attribution, namely the right
prefrontal cortex.
In conclusion, since high scores on the SPQ
were negatively correlated with contagious
yawning, and SPQ is related to schizophrenia
symptomatology, schizophretwice patients should
show little or no contagious yawning given that
they also show a deficit in their ability to
both recognize themselves and attribute mental
states to others. Further, we would hypothesize
that only those species that exhibit
self-recognition and mental state attribution
(humans, chimpanzees, and orangutans) ought also
exhibit contagious yawning.
Center for Mind,
Brain & Learning, University of Washington,
Seattle, WA 98195, USA
Phil. Trans. R. Soc.
Lond. B
2003; 358,
491Ð500
At the border
of the replication of yawning :
Both developmental and neurophysiological
research suggest a common coding between
perceived and generated actions. This shared
representational network is innately wired in
humans. We review psychological evidence
concerning the imitative behaviour of newborn
human infants. We suggest that the mechanisms
involved in infant imitation provide the
foundation for understanding that others are
'like me' and underlie the development of theory
of mind and empathy
for others. We also analyse functional
neuroimaging studies that explore the
neurophysiological substrate of imitation in
adults. We marshal evidence that imitation
recruits not only shared neural representations
between the self and the other but also cortical
regions in the parietal cortex that are crucial
for distinguishing between the perspective of
self and other. Imitation is doubly revealing:
it is used by infants to learn about adults, and
by scientists to understand the organization and
functioning of the brain.
Aux frontières de la replication
du bâillement :
Les recherches actuelles chez l'homme
s'accordent sur l'idée que la perception
des mouvements et des actions
réalisés par autrui, et l'imagerie
mentale de l'action partagent avec la
génération de l'action
intentionnelle un ensemble de régions
cérébrales. Cette capacité
cognitive est innée. Nous passons ici en
revue les données concernant la
capacité d'imitation du
nouveau-né. Nous suggérons que les
mécanismes sous-tendant la
capacité de l'enfant à imiter sont
à la base de la compréhension que
"l'autre est comme moi" et sous-tendent le
développement de la théorie de
l'esprit et la capacité à partager
des émotions ou empathie.
Nous passons en revue les études
d'imagerie fonctionnelle explorant les
capacités d'imitation de l'adulte. Nous
montrons ainsi que le cortex pariétal
joue un rôle crucial dans la distinction
entre le soi et l'autre. Ces études
offrent une assise neurophysiologique objective
au concept de représentations
partagées entre plusieurs personnes qui
seraient le fondement de la communication
sociale et de l'intersubjectivité.
L'imitation prouve deux choses : elle est
utilisée par l'enfant pour apprendre au
contact des adultes et d'autre part elle permet
aux scientifiques de mieux appréhender
l'organisation et le fonctionnement du
cerveau.
Admettant que le développement du
cortex frontal (moteur) et préfrontal
(prémoteur) est spécifique aux
bipèdes, on peut proposer que la
replication du bâillement,
véritable
échokinésie pour reprendre
ce mot inventé par JM Charcot, est:
- une spécificité humaine
interprétée comme un
mimétisme comportementale
- alors que l'observation d'un comportement
moteur d'autrui est mimée par les aires
motrices de l'observateur et le plus souvent non
suivi d'actes moteurs par inhibition frontale,
le bâillement serait-il, lui, sous
certaine condition de niveau de vigilance, le
résultat d'une imitation non
inhibée ?
- la replication du bâillement aurait
conféré un avantage
sélectif en permettant une synchonisation
efficace des niveaux de vigilance entre les
membres d'un groupe. Elle participerait d'une
forme d'empathie instinctive involontaire,
probablement apparue tardivement au cours de
l'évolution des primates.(J
Decéty : «un composant de l'empathie
est la résonance motrice dont le
déclenchement est le plus souvent
automatique et non intentionnel et qui plonge
ses racines dans l'histoire évolutive de
nos ancêtres les
primates non humains»)
Andrew N.
Meltzoff : «It is important to
distinguish between emotional contagion and true
empathy, which is different in that it involves
the capacity to hold both your own emotional
state and another's simultaneously - rather than
to just "catch" their emotion and feel it as
your own. On the basis of the research in
infants, emotional contagion precede empathy in
developmental terms and preceding both of these,
in the very youngest newborn babies, is the
ability to imitate another's actions and
expressions.»
