MOSCOW, 8 Feb — RIA Novosti, Alfia Enikeeva. Is one of the mouse to scratch, as after five seconds, her example is followed by others. Dogs, chimpanzees, people and birds can’t resist, if there is somebody yawn. To resist such impulses is impossible, scientists have found.
About the reasons for such behavior in the material RIA Novosti.
Yawning is “contagious” in monkeys, dogs and even budgies. Moreover, if chimpanzees are echoed and kindred, and people, Pets, apparently, react solely on his master. And the result depends on how man and animal close.
in 2013 Japanese scientists who observed 25 dogs, I noticed that they are much more likely to yawn after an owner, not for the volunteers, who saw for the first time life. In addition, animals are less responsive to a simulated yawn.
According to the researchers, this confirms the hypothesis that “contagious” behavior in dogs is primarily associated with emotion and empathy to the owner, and not c a response to stress. During the experiment, the pulse animals were smooth, so no special worries they experienced.
However, the specific mechanism of this phenomenon to explain then and failed. But seven years later the new Zealand scientists even showed that dog contagious yawning has nothing to do with empathy. They analyzed the results of six studies that 257 animals were provoked to yawn after the other dogs and people. In addition, scientists themselves have tested 32 individuals.
it turned Out that dogs can catch a yawn from a man regardless of how he treats them. Animals are equally often used to open the jaws in response to friendly actions of experimenters and those who showed hostility or ignored them. And, therefore, contagious yawning may not be linked with social interaction and empathy. The authors do not exclude that in this way is the case with all animals, are prone to such behavior.
new Zealand scientists, watching the dogs, pointed to the fact that the difference between the response of males and females was not. If contagious yawning was related to empathy, the females had to respond more often. Because they care about the young and well understand their needs, and this is impossible without a developed ability to empathy.
At least in primates, including man, females are more susceptible to catching yawns. In addition, the tendency to it increases as they grow older, and we know that with the years more people empathize with others.
So, the Swedish scientists were trying to provoke a chimp — 12 calves aged from one year to four and 21 juveniles from five to eighyear — on yawning or wiping his nose. In response to human actions teenagers yawned 24 times, and the kids did not react at all. Wiping nose no one was forced to impersonate.
From this it is concluded that to copy the gestures, if not all, makes empathy that develops slowly in the first years of life of chimpanzees. However, the data do not exclude the so-called “chameleon effect” — an unconscious imitation of the social environment.
American scientists suggest that imitative behavior in humans and monkeys has less to do with the ability to empathize with the neighbor, but with specific mutations in the genome. They observed the reaction of more than three hundred people of all ages. All the volunteers were from different social strata, they have not matched the levels of education and income. In addition, they differed significantly on the emotional qualities and the ability to empathize.
So, the reason must be sought in the genome. Moreover it is known that copying the behavior almost never occurs among autistics and schizophrenics with mutations in the so-called social genes.
Contagious scratching that scientists have discovered in mice points to another, more simple mechanism, associated with higher cognitive functions, not on empathy. Although in many ways it can to go to it, according to U.S. and Chinese researchers.
They were put opposite each other healthy mice and rodents suffering from chronic itching. After five seconds of normal mice began to itch furiously. The same result was if the animal showed the corresponding video.
Further study showed that in rodents activated neurons of the suprachiasmatic nucleus region of the brain responsible for circadian rhythms and biological clock of the body. But selective turning off these nerve cells stop visual transmission of scabies.
Probably, a similar mechanism may operate in other animals, are prone to imitative behavior, the authors of the work. However, the experiment with kalimantans orangutans did not confirm this hypothesis. Monkeys respond only fifteen minutes after they see each other.
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