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Hic Hic Hooray: Hiccups Explained

Posted by chrisd on from the don't-gulp-your-food dept.

Anonymous Hero writes "Finally after millions of years (and zillions of hiccups) New Scientist gives us an explanation for this most annoying and least obvious of adaptations!"

3 of 417 comments (clear)

  1. Explanation? by stevenbdjr · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'm sorry, where did that article provide the explanation? I saw theory, but no proven, scientific answer, as the last two paragraphs indicate...

    It is a plausible idea, says Allan Pack, an expert in respiratory neurobiology at the University of Pennsylvania. "But it's going to be very tough to prove."

    Straus thinks the real test of theory will be to look at the specific neurons that control hiccups and suckling. If the team is right, he says, most of the nerve cells that are active during suckling should also be active when we hiccup.
  2. Re:Yes and no by Black+Parrot · · Score: 2, Informative


    > The article relates a new theory, nothing more. It's a promising theory, and one which can be disproven easily. If the test fails to disproove the theory, then it can be taken more seriously as an explanation. Still, it may never be PROVEN, per se.

    In the natural sciences, theories are never proven, per se.

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  3. Re:What I want to know by mekkab · · Score: 2, Informative

    This guy is the man to ask...

    but I think the general consensus is that its all about group synchronization.

    Killer whales maintain pod cohesiveness through diving and respiratory synchronization
    (humans may have a vestige of this tendency in contagious yawning...     quoted from What's new in neurofeedback

    I think yawning is also an important way of telling your companions "Time to GET OUT OF MY HOUSE."

    --
    In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.