Do yoga to get your focus right

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Bhargavi Kerur / DNAMonday, January 11, 2010 8:33 IST

Bangalore: Yoga might have its die-hard adherents as a therapy in India. But lack of experimental data to substantiate its healing edge has hindered it from gaining acceptance as an applied science.

However, a series of experiments being conducted at SVYASA University, Bangalore with funding from the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) has now come up with incontrovertible proof that yoga indeed enhances the quality of daily life, besides acting as supplementary cure for various ailments.

Researchers Shirley Telles and Pailoor Subramanya of SVYASA University have studied the impact of two yoga techniques on psycho-motor abilities and found a positive result.

The researchers looked for before and after effects of two relaxation techniques of yoga — cyclic meditation (doing light exercise) and supine rest (shavasana) — on 57 people aged between 18 to 40 years.

One of the tests used in the study — the digit-letter substitution task (DLST) — consisted of a worksheet on which digits (1 to 9) were arranged randomly in 12 rows and eight columns. An instruction key for ‘letter-for-digit’ substitutions was provided at the top. The participants were required to make as many letter-for-digit substitutions as possible in 90 seconds. This test measured the information processing and attention span of the subject. The test was administered at the beginning and at the end of the interventions.

In another test — the letter-copying task — that measured the psychomotor and motor speed, the participants were asked to fill in boxes with any single letter of their choice, using their dominant hand, in 90 seconds. In yet another test — the circle dot test, the participants were asked to make a dot inside two circles alternately, using their dominant hand, as rapidly as possible in a time period of 90 seconds. This task is based on a standard ‘circle-dotting task’ for motor speed.

All the three tests were paper and pencil tasks.

The study found that the participants showed better performance in the digit-letter substitution task, as well as in tasks for motor speed following a session of cyclic meditation. Following a period of supine rest for an equal duration there was improved performance in the motor speed tasks.

The improved scores in the letter copying-task and the circle-dotting task following cyclic meditation sessions showed that the speed for repetitive motor activity was also better after the yoga technique.

Similarly, the study revealed that the letter-cancellation tasks, requiring sustained attention, as well as visual scanning and activation and inhibition of rapid responses, were also better performed after a round of yoga. The letter-cancellation task assessed the ability to sustain and shift attention, immediate memory, visual scanning, and motor speed for repetitive motor activity.

Results from all these tests taken together suggested that cyclic meditation induced a state of reduced physiological arousal with improved performance in tasks requiring attention, Pailoor said.

For the control group, where participants did not follow the exercises, the results after performing the tasks showed no improvement, the study said. The control group was asked to be seated, and given no specific instructions. Their thoughts wandered at random.
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