Dept of Kinesiology and Community Health, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA.
J Phys Act Health. 2013 May;10(4):488-95. doi: 10.1123/jpah.10.4.488. Epub 2012 Jul 9.
Despite an increase in the prevalence of yoga exercise, research focusing on the relationship between yoga exercise and cognition is limited. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of an acute yoga exercise session, relative to aerobic exercise, on cognitive performance.
A repeated measures design was employed where 30 female college-aged participants (Mean age = 20.07, SD = 1.95) completed 3 counterbalanced testing sessions: a yoga exercise session, an aerobic exercise session, and a baseline assessment. The flanker and n-back tasks were used to measure cognitive performance.
Results showed that cognitive performance after the yoga exercise bout was significantly superior (ie, shorter reaction times, increased accuracy) as compared with the aerobic and baseline conditions for both inhibition and working memory tasks. The aerobic and baseline performance was not significantly different, contradicting some of the previous findings in the acute aerobic exercise and cognition literature.
These findings are discussed relative to the need to explore the effects of other nontraditional modes of exercise such as yoga on cognition and the importance of time elapsed between the cessation of the exercise bout and the initiation of cognitive assessments in improving task performance.
尽管瑜伽运动的普及程度有所提高，但专注于瑜伽运动与认知之间关系的研究有限。本研究旨在探讨与有氧运动相比，一次急性瑜伽运动对认知表现的影响。
采用重复测量设计，30 名女性大学生（平均年龄=20.07，标准差=1.95）完成了 3 次平衡测试：瑜伽运动、有氧运动和基线评估。采用侧抑制任务和 n-回任务来衡量认知表现。
结果表明，与有氧运动和基线条件相比，瑜伽运动后的认知表现明显更好（即反应时间更短，准确性更高），无论是在抑制任务还是工作记忆任务中都是如此。而有氧运动和基线条件之间的表现没有显著差异，这与之前关于急性有氧运动和认知的一些研究结果相矛盾。
这些发现与需要探索其他非传统运动方式（如瑜伽）对认知的影响以及在改善任务表现方面，运动结束与认知评估开始之间的时间间隔的重要性有关。
