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December 23, 2007
Immediate Effects of Right and Left Nostril Breathing
on Verbal and Spatial Scores
Meesha Joshi and Shirley Telles
Swami Vivekananda Yoga Research Foundation, Bangalore, India
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Abstract
Background: Earlier studies on spontaneous breathing and unilateral forced nostril have reported lateralized effect on cognitive specific tasks. It was observed that yoga voluntarily regulated breathing produced effects without lateralization when practiced over 10 days period of time in children. Hence, this study was conducted to assess the immediate effect of two yoga breathing techniques on hemisphere specific tasks, verbal and spatial memory. Methods: Forty-five participants (24 males, 21 females; age range 20 to 45 years (mean age 27.13 ± 8. 06 years)) were randomly allocated to three groups. Participants were assessed immediately before and after 45 minutes of three breathing practices i.e. right nostril yoga breathing (surya anuloma viloma), left nostril yoga breathing (chandra anuloma viloma), and breath awareness as a control intervention. Results: The spatial memory scores significantly increased (16 %, p<0.03, paired t-test) after 45 minutes of left nostril yoga breathing compared to before. Conclusions: Hence as for earlier studies unilateral forced nostril breathing enhanced performance in a hemisphere-specific cognitive task contralateral to the dominant nostril.
