Contagious yawning and the frontal lobe: An fMRI study

Fatta B. Nahab, Noriaki Hattori, Ziad S. Saad, Mark Hallett
2009 Human Brain Mapping  
We conducted a slow event-related fMRI experiment with naïve subjects' passively viewing yawn and various other control videos along with correlative behavioral testing. Specifically associated with the viewing of the contagious yawn was an area of activation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. These findings suggest a role for the prefrontal cortex in the processing of contagious yawning, while demonstrating a unique automaticity in the processing of contagious motor programs which take place independently of mirror neuron networks.
doi:10.1002/hbm.20638 pmid:18937281 pmcid:PMC4758456 fatcat:fnlrebtkejhxhiylz3u3qps724