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Cited by 16Mindfulness and Compassion InterventionsBiofield Effects and BiophysicsHeart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control

Changes in Shape and Size Discrimination and State Anxiety After Alternate-Nostril Yoga Breathing and Breath Awareness in One Session Each

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Telles, Shirley, Vishwakarma, Babita, Gupta, Ram Kumar, Balkrishna, Acharya·2019·Medical Science Monitor Basic Research
DOI 10.12659/msmbr.914956PMC PMC6496972
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Abstract

BACKGROUND Yoga breathing techniques like high-frequency yoga breathing (HFYB) and breath awareness (BAW) have been associated with improved performance in the shape and size discrimination task. A PubMed search of the literature revealed that alternate-nostril breathing has been shown to improve performance in attention tasks, but the effect on tactile perception has not been studied. Hence, the present study was designed to assess the immediate effects of alternate-nostril yoga breathing (ANYB) compared to breath awareness on shape and size discrimination and state anxiety. MATERIAL AND METHODS Fifty healthy male volunteers ages 20-50 years (group mean ±S.D., 28.4±8.2 years) were recruited. Each participant was assessed in 3 sessions conducted on 3 separate days at the same time of day. The 3 sessions were (i) alternate-nostril yoga breathing (ANYB), (ii) breath awareness (BAW), and (iii) quiet sitting (QS), and the sequence of the sessions was randomly allocated. The shape and size discrimination task and state anxiety were assessed before and after all 3 sessions. Repeated measures analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA) followed by post hoc tests for multiple comparisons, which were Bonferroni-adjusted, were performed to compare data before and after all 3 sessions using SPSS version 18.0. RESULTS The errors scores in the shape and size discrimination task showed a significant reduction after the ANYB session (p<0.001). A significant reduction was found in the level of state anxiety after breath awareness (p<0.05) and quiet sitting sessions (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS The present results suggest that ANYB: (i) improves performance in a task which requires perceptual sensitivity and focused attention, but (ii) does not reduce state anxiety following this task.

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  • The two ineffective ANB interventions had either human-guided training in a yoga-naive population [44] or no such training in a yoga-breathing-experienced population [49].

    “The two ineffective ones had either human-guided training in a yoga-naive population [44] or no such training in a yoga-breathing-experienced population [49].”

    From Breathing Practices for Stress and Anxiety Reduction: Conceptual Framework of Implementation Guidelines Based on a Systematic Review of the Published Literature (2023) · cites this paper as [49]

    The Participants section (page unavailable) says volunteers had at least three months’ experience with the breathing practices, and the Discussion says alternate-nostril breathing did not reduce state anxiety. The Interventions section describes instructions but does not establish that there was no human-guided training. Calling the intervention simply “ineffective” is also broader than the paper’s finding: it improved haptic discrimination. (LLM, conf=0.85)

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Authors
Telles, S., Vishwakarma, B., Gupta, R. K., & Balkrishna, A.
Affiliations
Patanjali Research Foundation (IN)
Corresponding author
Telles, Shirley
ORCID
Venue
Medical Science Monitor Basic Research
Publisher
International Scientific Information, Inc.
Published
2019-04-22
Volume
25
Pages
121-127
ISSN
  • 2325-4394 (ISSN-L)
  • 2325-4416
DOI
10.12659/msmbr.914956
PMC
PMC6496972
OpenAlex
W2942132609
Cited by
16
References
37
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 2
FWCI
2.04
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by-nc-nd
Locations
  • Medical science monitor basic research/Medical science monitor. Basic research (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Biofield Effects and Biophysics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control
Keywords
breath awareness, tactile perception, state anxiety, focused attention, perceptual sensitivity
MeSH terms
Adult, Analysis of Variance, Anxiety, Awareness, Breathing Exercises, Discrimination, Psychological, Humans, Male, Respiration, Task Performance and Analysis, Yoga, Young Adult

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