Chimps imitate yawning animations
By Victoria Gill
Science reporter, BBC News
Yawning is so contagious that chimpanzees can "catch" it from cartoons, according to research.Scientists from Emory University in Atlanta, US, have discovered that an animation of a yawning chimp will stimulate real chimps to yawn.
They describe in the Royal Society journal, Proceedings B, how this could assist in the future study of empathy.
The work could also help unravel if and how computer games might cause children to imitate what they see on screen.
Previous studies have already shown contagious yawning in chimpanzees - stimulated by video-recorded footage of yawns.
"We wanted to expand on that," explained Matthew Campbell, a researcher from Emory University's Yerkes National Primate Research Center and lead author of the study.
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