Neurophysiological Effects of Alternate Nostril Yoga Breathing

Abstract

The normal EEG signals are spontaneous oscillations; there are other neural signals received after presenting a sensory stimulus, known as evoked potentials (EPs) (Cacioppo, Tassinary and Berntson, 2007). EPs are polyphasic waves with amplitudes between 0.1-20 and#956;V which are acquired in a latency window of 2-500 ms after the stimulus onset. The stimulus can be auditory, visual or somatosensory (Oken and Philips, 2009). EPs are obtained by signal averaging as these low-amplitude potentials are mixed with background EEG, ECG, EMG and ambient noise. Based on the specific latencies between the stimulus presentation and the neural response, the EPs are characterized into short (0-10 ms), middle (10-100 ms) or long-latency (40-300 ms) potentials (Oken and Philips, 2009). EPs are important as they provide useful information about neural allocation and the speed of stimulus processing (Singh and Telles, 2015). By examining evoked potentials, we can obtain information such as the time taken to elicit the response against the stimulus, intensity of the response and any problem (if there is any) in the neural pathways and its location. (Akai and Oraii, 2012). newlineIn yoga, there are specific practices which include voluntary regulation of breath and they are called pranayamas (Ramdev, 2007). In ancient yoga texts the breath (prana) is described as a bridge between the mind and body and breath regulation as the method to achieve mental tranquility (Muktibodhananda, 2002). Hatha pradeepika describes the association of breath with the mind as when the prana (breath) is unstable and irregular the chitta (mind) is unstable, when the prana is without movement the chitta is stable (Hatha Yoga pradipika, Chapter II, Verse 2) (Muktibodhananda, 2002). Alternate nostril breathing or anuloma-viloma pranayama is one of the widely practiced yoga breathing techniques. In ancient yoga texts, breathing through the left nostril is said to be calming and cooling , right nostril breathing is mentioned as energizing , newline newlinewhile breathing alternatively throu