Abstract

Background: Yogic techniques produce consistent physiological changes and have a sound scientific basis. There are lots of studies reporting the long-term effect of pranayama training, but there are few reports on the immediate effects of pranayama on body functions. Aims and Objectives: The purpose of this study was to find out whether the pranayama has any immediate effect on human reaction time (RT).
Materials and Methods: This study had been conducted in 40 healthy male volunteers of the age group of 18-20 years. In this study, we had studied the time taken between applications of visual stimulus and auditory stimulus and response obtained and comparison of the response in volunteer before doing the Anulom Vilom pranayama and immediately following the Anulom Vilom pranayama. Subjects were presented with two type of stimuli; visual stimuli and auditory stimuli. Paired and unpaired t-test was used at appropriate places as a statistical test. The P<0.05 was considered significant. Result: A significant decrease in auditory RT and visual RT was observed immediately following the Anulom Vilom pranayama. Conclusion: A decrease in RT indicates an improved sensory motor performance and enhanced processing ability of the central nervous system due to Anulom Vilom. This may be due to greater arousal, faster rate of information processing, improved concentration and/or ability to ignore extraneous stimuli. This is of applied value in situations requiring faster reactivity such as sports, machine operation, race driving, and specialized surgery.