A COMPARISON OF ATTENTION NETWORK IN YOGA PRACTITIONERS AND NON-YOGA PRACTITIONERS: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Abstract

Introduction - Lifestyle behaviors like physical activity, breathing practices play an important role in preventing cognitive declination and maintaining or helps in improving cognition functions like attention, perception, etc.. Aim & Objectives - The purpose of the study was to observe the impact of Yoga practices on Attention Network in young adults. The objective of the study was to compare the attention in yoga and non-yoga practitioners in the performance of attention network test. Method & Materials - Seventy healthy male and female young adult subjects with age range 18 to 25 years were recruited in this study, among which thirty five subjects were yoga practitioners (age mean ± SD;19.98 ± 1.48)with more than one year yoga experience. The remaining thirty-five were non-yoga practitioners (mean± SD; 19 ± 0.77). The yoga participants were recruited from a Yoga University in South India, whereas the non-yoga practitioners were selected from nearby medical college who never introduced to yoga. The demographic information of all participants were obtained and each participant performed a computerized Attention Network Test. This test was run by using Inquisit 4 software. Result - Yoga practitioners shows significant lower reaction time, correct response (p < 0.05), correct center cue (p < 0.01), correct double cue (p < 0.05), correct spatial cue (p < 0.01), correct congruent (p < 0.05), correct incongruent (p < 0.05). Conclusion –Yoga practices may facilitate attention related network, inhibition and control over the visual cues as presented in the current study. Also, the response time during the task was quicker and faster. The control group participants reported delayed performance in reaction time which suggest, control group participants took longer time in the attention network performance. Key Words – Yoga, Attention, Attention Network Test (ANT), Young adults.