Yoga therapy for sustained attention

Abstract

Background: Sustained attention (SA) is a vital function mediated by the right frontal-parietal cortex. The six letter cancellation task (SLCT) measures SA. Assessment of SA in volunteers undergoing Yoga therapy (YT) training compared to control group is the theme of the present study. Materials and Methods: Sixty healthy volunteers, 48.75 ± 3.86 years of mean age were participated in the present study. Thirty volunteers selected from Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana University, Bengaluru, India were practiced YT for 7 days. They were compared with a control group of 30 healthy volunteers from Sri Devaraj Urs Medical College, Kolar, India matched for the duration of the study, age, gender, and socioeconomic background that were not exposed to YT training but continued their usual college routine during that period. All volunteers were assessed for SA using SLCT. Results: The YT group showed 18.06% significant increase (P = 0.010, paired samples t-test) in total attempted (TA) score on SLCT. Similarly, there was 19.03% significant increase (P = 0.008, paired samples t-test) in net score (NS). However, there was 26.32% decrease in wrongly attempted (WA) score which was statistically not significant (P = 0.637, paired samples t-test). There was no significant change in control group. Increase in TA and NS and decrease in WA is related with enhancement of SA. Conclusion: The results suggest that YT enhances SA in healthy volunteers. Additional well-designed trial with long-term follow-up is needed before a strong recommendation can be made.