���˿���

Some of our daily activities can feel so natural they almost happen like clockwork.

Brushing your teeth, eating a meal, going to bed - just some of the things that form an important part in our every day routines. But what about the acts we do that go unnoticed? ���˿��� Bitesize takes a look at some of the things we do everyday without realising and why we do them.

Move our eyes when trying to remember something

Whether you’re looking to the sky for inspiration, or looking to the floor like Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker statue, it can feel natural to move our eyes when we’re trying to recall something. But why is this the case?

Research shows that the eyes not only reflect what is happening in our brains but can also help us to remember things and make decisions. Over the years, scientists have found that several non-visual activities, such as day dreaming and mental maths, consistently resulted in specific patterns of eye movement.

Findings from a 2020 study led by the Baycrest Rotman Research Institute in Canada indicate that eye movements play a functional role in memory retrieval. Using an eye tracking technique, they found that participants moved their eyes to determine whether they had seen an image before. By analysing these eye movement patterns, scientists could predict mistakes in memory.

This shows that eye movement and memory are closely interconnected, and also forms part of a phenomenon called pattern completion. Pattern completion refers to the ability to recall a whole memory from a partial cue and is often recognised when it goes wrong. For example, when you end up mistakenly waving to a stranger if they have similar features to someone you know. Ooops!

Stick our tongues out while concentrating

Most of us have been there. You’re working hard or focusing deeply on something and without even knowing it your tongue is sticking out your mouth. While it is particularly common in children, adults also do it and there are a number of theories as to why it might happen.

The tongue is a large muscle and a surprising amount of your brain is dedicated to it. This part of the brain is responsible for a number of actions, such as keeping the tongue constantly moving and helping you swallow. On top of this, the tongue is also connected to the brain’s language function.

Combine all these factors together and the brain is left with a lot of information to process. As a result, some scientists believe sticking out or biting your tongue can free up more brain power and improve concentration.

But a protruding tongue may also be an evolutionary response. A study led by UK and Swedish researchers investigated why young children seem to stick out their tongue while working on certain tasks.

They found that sticking your tongue out isn’t just a quirk of childhood. Instead, they theorised that it may stem from the evolution of human communication - a signal that has stayed with us as spoken language evolved from gestures.

Yawning when somebody else yawns

The science of yawning can be traced back to the ancient world. In 400 BC, the Greek physician Hippocrates theorised that yawning helped to release harmful air, particularly during a fever. Today yawning is commonly associated with sleepiness, but the debate around its function still remains.

While some researchers argue it may be connected to physiological reasons - such as regulating oxygen levels or brain temperature - others believe it forms part of a social function, such as communicating boredom.

But why can yawning be so contagious? While scientists still don’t fully understand why it happens, there are many different theories to explain it. One suggests that contagious yawning is a way of demonstrating empathy. A 2003 study by the University of Stirling in Scotland found that yawn copying starts to occur at the ages of four or five, coinciding with the age when children develop the ability to identify others’ emotions properly.

A separate 2020 study led by Italian researchers found we’re much more likely to experience a contagious yawn with people close to us, rather than strangers.

Regardless of the explanation, contagious yawning is hard to avoid. In a 2005 study led by the American psychologist Robert R. Provine, 88% of people who were instructed to think of yawns yawned themselves within 30 minutes. Yawning has even been proven to be so infectious that even hearing, seeing or reading about it can trigger one. Are you yawning yet?

This article was published in October 2023