Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Why is it that when I'm focused on doing something like drawing or trying to thread a needle, my tongue hangs out of my mouth, often to one side?

Close consultation with a professor of psychology and a professor of kinesiology leads us to the answer to so many of life's mysteries: We don't know.

"It's a signal of intense concentration," Paul Ekman, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California, San Francisco, tells AF. "There are a number of things people do with their face when they're concentrating. One is pursing the lips, another is tightening the lower eyelids, and a third is sticking the tongue out.

"It's easier to explain the tightening of the lower eyelids, because that puts pressure on, [which] sharpens your focus. Why puckering your lips or showing your tongue? No idea."

Jane Clark, professor of kinesiology at the University of Maryland, says, "When all of your energy is going into a task — with your hands, for example — your tongue might come out as a sort of extra activation."

Why the tongue?

"That's what I don't really know."

Got a question? Send it to


What Do You Think?