Image copyright Science Photo Library Image caption People are less likely to catch yawns the older they are, the study found 
 
 People are less likely to yawn when others do as they get older, a study has found. 
 
 Contagious yawning is linked more closely to a person's age than their ability to empathise, as previously thought, US-based scientists said. 
 
 It also showed a stronger link to age than tiredness or energy levels. 
 
 Researchers are now looking at whether the ability to catch yawns from other people is inherited, with the hope of helping treat mental health disorders. 
 
 Autism and schizophrenia sufferers are reportedly less able to catch yawns, researchers said, so understanding the genes that might code for contagious yawning could illuminate new pathways for treatment. 
 
 Contagious acts such as yawning and laughing remind us that we are often mindless beasts of the herd Robert R Provine, University of Maryland in Baltimore County 
 
 In the study, published in the journal Plos One, 328 participants were shown a three-minute video showing other people yawning. 
 
 Each subject had to click a button every time they yawned. 
 
 Levels of tiredness 
 
 Overall, 68% of the participants yawned. Of those, 82% of people aged under 25 yawned, compared with 60% of people aged between 25 and 49, and 41% of people aged over 50. 
 
 Dr Elizabeth Cirulli, assistant professor of medicine at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, led the study. 
 
 She said: "This is the first study to look at a whole bunch of factors. It is the largest study, in terms of the number of people involved, to date." 
 
 Dr Cirulli said she did not know why contagious yawning decreased with age. 
 
 She added that although age was the most important predictor of contagious yawning, only 8% of the variation in whether or not a participant yawned was explained by their age. 
 
 "The vast majority of variation in the contagious yawning response was just not explained," said Dr Cirulli. 
 
 The study used questionnaires to test the participants' empathy, levels of tiredness and sleep patterns. 
 
 Meanwhile, intelligence was assessed using cognitive tests. 
 
 Neurological 'nitty-gritty' 
 
 Robert R Provine, professor of psychology at the University of Maryland in Baltimore County, said the study was "unique" as it marked the first time a link between ageing and contagious yawning had been shown. 
 
 He said the study would "help to get down to the neurological nitty-gritty of contagious behaviours" and mental health disorders such as autism and schizophrenia. 
 
 Prof Provine said the findings could also help to understand why laughing and coughing were so contagious. 
 
 He added: "Contagious acts such as yawning and laughing remind us that we are often mindless beasts of the herd, not rational beings in full conscious control of our behaviour." ||||| By Brenda Goodman 
 
 HealthDay Reporter 
 
 THURSDAY, Aug. 8, 2013 (HealthDay News) -- Yawn in the presence of your pooch and they're likely to yawn right back at you, a new study shows. 
 
 The research, a series of carefully controlled experiments with 25 dogs of different breeds, confirms that dogs are more likely to "catch" their owner's yawns than a stranger's and more likely to respond to real yawns as opposed to fake ones. Fake yawns involve opening and closing the mouth in the movement of a yawn without making any sound. 
 
 Researchers also strapped heart rate monitors to the dogs to make sure they weren't yawning because they were stressed or anxious. They weren't. 
 
 "We tried to create a comfortable atmosphere in doing the experiment, and sometimes it was so comfortable for them that they fell asleep," said study author Teresa Romero, a research fellow in the department of cognitive and behavioral science at the University of Tokyo. 
 
 The study was published online on Aug. 7 in the journal PLoS One. 
 
 Although copying a yawn may not sound like such an impressive trick, scientists think it's a sign of something important -- the ability to empathize and bond with others. 
 
 Previous studies have shown, for example, that people who score higher on measures of empathy are more likely to return yawns than people who aren't as empathetic. And the ability to yawn contagiously appears to develop with age. 
 
 "Several studies have shown that children don't begin to show contagious yawning until around 4 years of age, and only reach adult levels around 12 years of age," said Elainie Madsen, a comparative psychologist at Lund University in Sweden, who has studied contagious yawning. 
 
 In the animal kingdom, contagious yawning appears to be a rare talent. Certain apes, such as chimpanzees and bonobos, which are some of the closest evolutionary relatives to humans, catch each other's yawns. Beyond apes, one species of bird appears to be able to yawn contagiously, and several recent studies have suggested that Canis familiaris, also known as man's best friend, can do it, too. 
 
 One thing researchers haven't figured out is why dogs yawn along with humans. 
 
 "There are multiple hypotheses, but the empathy hypothesis is the one that has received most attention over the last few years," Madsen said. "I think the evidence in support for it is accumulating." 
 
 She said that at a basic level, contagious yawning probably has something to do with group coordination and synchronizing group behavior. 
 
 As happened in the new study, Madsen's study of contagious yawning in puppies often lulled the dogs to sleep. She doesn't think that's an accident. "[The dogs] internalized the emotion that yawning reflects, and basically coordinated their behavior to that of the yawner," she said. 
 
 Dogs live in packs, and Madsen expects that all animals that live in groups may demonstrate the ability to catch yawns.However, researchers say the jury is still out on whether cats care that their owners are tired. 
 
 "I think it would be very hard to study contagious yawning between humans and cats," Romero said. "They don't pay very much attention to us." 
 
 More information 
 
 For more insights into animal behavior, head to the Animal Behavior Clinic at Tufts University. ||||| Young people are more prone to ‘catching’ another person’s yawn than older people, a study conducted by US-based scientists has found. 
 
 Older people are less likely to be susceptible to "catch" a yawn from someone else, in comparison. 
 
 The study, published on Friday in the PLOS One journal, asked 328 healthy participants to watch a three-minute video of other people yawning. They were then asked to click every time they yawned. 
 
 The participants also underwent a number of tests to assess their cognitive function and levels of empathy, energy and sleepiness. 
 
 Overall, 68 per cent of the participants yawned. Of those, 82 per cent of people aged 25 or younger yawned, compared with 60 per cent of people aged between 25 and 49, and 41 per cent of people aged over 50. 
 
 The phenomenon of contagious yawns has been linked to age, research has found. 
 
 However, scientists were unable to explain why older people were less inclined to catching yawns. 
 
 There was also no strong connection between yawning and empathy or intelligence, and age was only able to explain about 8 per cent of variability in the contagious yawn response, they said. 
 
 Researchers will now look at whether the ability to catch yawns is inherited, in the hope that understanding the gene codes for contagious yawning could highlight new treatment pathways for mental health disorders. 
 
 Dr Elizabeth Cirulli, assistant professor of medicine at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, who led the study said: "Age was the most important predictor of contagious yawning, and even age was not that important. 
 
 "The vast majority of variation in the contagious yawning response was just not explained."
– It can be tough not to yawn when the guy next to you does—but apparently, it gets a little easier to avoid doing so as we get older. The finding comes from a study of contagious yawning among 328 subjects who were shown a three-minute clip of others yawning. Each time a participant yawned, he or she had to click a button, the BBC reports. Some 68% of subjects yawned, but the rate varied among different age groups: 82% of under-25s yawned, while 60% of 25- to 49-year-olds did. Just 41% of those older than 50 yawned. Yawning contagiousness wasn't strongly linked to empathy or intelligence, the Independent reports—a finding that appears to run counter to earlier research, the BBC points out. Still, age accounted for just 8% of the variation in the phenomenon, per the head of the study, and "the vast majority of variation in the contagious yawning response was just not explained," she says. Researchers note that those with autism and schizophrenia are thought to be less likely to "catch" a yawn; genetic research on yawning could help in finding treatments for the conditions. (In other yawning news, it turns out your dogs can catch your yawns.)