Andrew Gallup, Assistant Professor of Psychology at SUNY Oneonta, was featured on WAMC Northeast Public Radio’s “The Academic Minute” earlier this week. Airing each weekday at 7:34 a.m. and 3:56 p.m., the program updates listeners on what’s new and exciting in academe through short interviews with researchers from colleges and universities around the world.
In this edition, Gallup discusses his theory that yawning is a mechanism designed to cool the brain. Gallup, an evolutionary psychologist with diverse interests in evolution and behavior, has done extensive research on contagious and spontaneous yawning in both animals and humans. Most recently, he worked with a team of researchers from the University of Vienna, Austria, and Nova Southeastern University to show that yawning is part of a suite of thermoregulatory mechanisms, much like sweating, that keep the brain functioning optimally.
In addition to airing on WAMC (99.3 FM), Gallup’s segment is featured on the WAMC website.
But why cool the brainj only when you are sleepy? I don’t get it.
I’ve read Andrew Gallup’s article “Yawning as a brain cooling mechanism” in Evolutionary Psychology Journal. His research and experiments are really great!
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