BBC: What happens in the brain to make us 'catch’ yawns
BBC
Dr Andrew Gallup, a psychologist at SUNY Polytechnic Institute, who has carried out research into the connection between empathy and yawning, said using TMS was a "novel approach" to the study of contagious yawning.
He added: "We still know relatively little about why we yawn. Various studies have proposed links between contagious yawning and empathy, yet the research supporting this connection is mixed and inconsistent.