Curious Behavior: Yawning, Laughing, Hiccupping, and Beyond

Neuroscientist Provine delighted the public with Laughter: A Scientific Investigation. His new book, which is about many instinctive behaviors, could pack a similar punch. We are clearly captivated by our baser instincts, which science has overlooked. Provine “redresses historic debts” by focusing on such bodily behaviors as “Farting and Belching.” Tickling, for example, may tap into a neural mechanism for distinguishing ourselves from others, he says (i.e., “you can’t tickle yourself”). Contagious yawns—affecting 55% of those watching yawn videos—may reflect how our brains replicate observed behavior to create empathy. Further evidence for this is that autistic children, who lack empathy, can be immune to contagious yawning. As such areas are understudied, the book by necessity traffics in many hypotheticals, and dutifully cites some research with obvious conclusions, like “bored people really do yawn a lot.” But there is much to intrigue both general and serious readers, from a passage on herring farts calling fish together, to a study finding men less attracted to women whose tears they have sniffed (“Tear jerkers are not ideal date movies”). The book provides a not-yet definitive, but often fascinating, take on our most curious behaviors. 27 line illus. (Aug.)