Yawning May Help Clear the Brain, MRI Study Finds

A UNSW-led study used MRI to watch 22 healthy participants yawning, deep-breathing, and resting. Yawns moved cerebrospinal fluid away from the brain (unlike deep breaths), while both yawns and deep breaths increased blood flow leaving the brain. The findings suggest yawning could play a role in brain cleaning or cooling, and that yawning patterns are highly individual, likely governed by a central pattern generator; the study was published in Respiratory Physiology & Neurobiology (2026).