We do it between 5 and 10 times a day…
The size of the human brain has continued to increase throughout evolution. In 7 million years, it has multiplied by 3. At the same time, the intellectual and cognitive capacities of humans have strengthened considerably, which suggests that the size of the brain would be proportional to intelligence. This proportionality has been demonstrated on several occasions, proving that the larger the organ of thought, the more space it offers for neurons, information processing and memorization capacity. Obviously, the size of the brain would not be the only parameter to take into account to measure intelligence: cerebral organization or certain neuronal connection mechanisms also strongly participate. More recently, biologists from Utrecht University and the Polytechnic Institute of the State University of New York discovered a strange link between brain size, intelligence and a gesture that we done all daily.
We do this gesture between 5 and 10 times a day and it is often considered rude or disrespectful. However, according to researchers, it is linked to greater intelligence because it helps cool the brain. Do you have any idea of the gesture in question? It’s about yawning. “Through the simultaneous inhalation of fresh air and stretching of the muscles surrounding the oral cavities, yawning cools the blood flow to the brain and thus has a thermoregulatory functiondetails Andrew Gallup, lead author of the study published in the scientific journal Communications Biology. And the bigger or more active the brain is, the more it needs cooling, therefore more yawning.“. Therefore, according to scientists, “big brains” yawn more often and for longer.
To reach this surprising conclusion, Researchers collected nearly 1,300 yawns from 55 species of mammals and 46 species of birds. Then, they linked the yawns to brain and neuronal data provided by the scientific team at Charles University in Prague. This allowed them to conclude that, regardless of body size, the duration and frequency of yawns across species increases with the size and number of neurons in a given species’ brain. “Perhaps we should stop viewing yawning as rude or a sign of boredom, and instead think that an individual who yawns is more alert and attentive” conclude the researchers.