Communications Biology (May 2021)

Brain size and neuron numbers drive differences in yawn duration across mammals and birds

  • Jorg J. M. Massen,
  • Margarita Hartlieb,
  • Jordan S. Martin,
  • Elisabeth B. Leitgeb,
  • Jasmin Hockl,
  • Martin Kocourek,
  • Seweryn Olkowicz,
  • Yicheng Zhang,
  • Christin Osadnik,
  • Jorrit W. Verkleij,
  • Thomas Bugnyar,
  • Pavel Němec,
  • Andrew C. Gallup

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02019-y
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 4, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

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Massen, Hartlieb, Martin et al. study the duration of yawns across mammals and birds to test the brain cooling hypothesis. Consistent with this hypothesis, their findings indicate that brain mass and neuron numbers influence yawn duration, and that mammals yawn longer than birds with similar brain and body masses.