The Connection Between Autism And Contagious Yawning
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You yawn, I yawn, we all yawn.
The contagious power of yawning is well known. Researchers have speculated the phenomenon may be tied to empathy, with some suggesting it is a special type of mimicry that evolved as a unconscious way of communicating relief after a state of high alertness. A series of experiments published in the journal Child Development found that among regularly developing children, most don't experience contagious yawning until age four. However, the second study identified a group that is less likely to experience the phenomenon of contagious yawing even as they get older: the autistic. It found that in autistic children age six to 15, contagious yawning was much more rare. In fact, the more severely autistic they were, the less likely they were to yawn when someone else did. According to researchers, "this study suggests that empathy and the mimicry that may underlie it develop slowly over the first few years of life, and that children with autism spectrum disorders may miss subtle cues that tie them emotionally to others." Read more: Contagious yawn 'caused by empathy' SHARE:
Posted In: Autism Spectrum Disorders | Social Psychology | Tags: Autism | Empathy | Yawning | Posted by FindCounseling.com Staff on September 15, 2010 at 03:22 PM | Permalink |
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