Patanjali Yogpeeth, Maharishi Dayanand Gram, Bahadrabad, Haridwar, Uttarakhand 249402, India.
Percept Mot Skills. 2011 Jun;112(3):981-90. doi: 10.2466/02.20.22.PMS.112.3.981-990.
Prior research has shown that methods of meditation, breath control, and different kinds of yoga breathing affect attention and visual perception, including decreasing the size of certain optical illusions. Evaluating relationships sheds light on the perceptual and cognitive changes induced by yoga and related methods, and the locus of the effects. In the present study, the degree of optical illusion was assessed using Müller-Lyer stimuli before and immediately after two different kinds of practice, a high frequency yoga breathing called kapalabhati, and breath awareness. A nonyoga, control session tested for practice effects. Thirty participants (with group M age = 26.9 yr., SD = 5.7) practiced the two techniques for 18 min. on two separate days. The control group had 15 nonyoga practitioners assessed before and after 18 min. in which they did not perform any specific activity but were seated and relaxed. After both kapalabhati and breath awareness there was a significant decrease in the degree of optical illusion. The possibility that this was due to a practice or repetition effect was ruled out when 15 nonyoga practitioners showed no change in the degree of illusion when retested after 18 min. The changes were interpreted as due to changes in perception related to the way the stimuli were judged.
先前的研究表明，冥想、呼吸控制和不同种类的瑜伽呼吸方法会影响注意力和视觉感知，包括减小某些视错觉的大小。评估这些关系可以揭示瑜伽和相关方法引起的感知和认知变化，以及这些影响的发生部位。在本研究中，使用穆勒-莱尔刺激物在前测和两种不同练习（一种高频瑜伽呼吸法称为卡帕拉巴蒂，以及呼吸意识）后即刻评估光幻觉的程度。非瑜伽的控制组测试练习效果。30 名参与者（M 组年龄=26.9 岁，标准差=5.7）在两天内分别练习了两种技术 18 分钟。对照组中有 15 名非瑜伽练习者在 18 分钟内没有进行任何特定活动，只是坐着放松，然后进行前后测。在进行卡帕拉巴蒂和呼吸意识练习后，光幻觉的程度都显著降低。当 15 名非瑜伽练习者在 18 分钟后重新测试时，光幻觉的程度没有变化，排除了这种变化是由于练习或重复效应的可能性。这些变化被解释为与刺激判断方式有关的感知变化所致。
