School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Montreal Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation (CRIR), Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Montreal Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation (CRIR), Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Feil and Oberfeld Research Centre, BRAIN Lab, Jewish Rehabilitation Hospital, Laval, Quebec, Canada.
Complement Ther Med. 2019 Jun;44:129-142. doi: 10.1016/j.ctim.2019.03.021. Epub 2019 Apr 5.
The current body of literature was reviewed to evaluate the effects of yoga on the brain in relation to motor performance, body awareness and pain.
Yoga has been increasingly popular in the Western countries especially for its unique integration of the mind and body. Yoga has been studied more intensely in the last decade. Although it has been shown to improve cognitive functions, few studies have looked into the effects of yoga on improving motor performance, body awareness or pain and the possible underlying brain mechanisms associated with them.
A search of the current literature was made using keywords such as: "yoga brain motor", "yoga brain pain", "effects yoga brain" and "effects yoga brain motor performance". The findings were then discussed in relation to motor performance, body awareness and pain and their reported mechanisms of action on the brain.
A total of 61 articles were selected, out of which 29 were excluded because they did not meet our criteria. A total of thirty-two articles were included in this review, which we further subdivided by focus: motor performance (n = 10), body awareness (n = 14) and pain (n = 8).
Our review shows that yoga has a positive effect on learning rate, speed and accuracy of a motor task by increasing attention and decreasing stress through a better control of sensorimotor rhythms. Yoga also seems to improve sensory awareness and interoception, regulate autonomic input, increase parasympathetic activity and promote self-regulation. Yoga was also shown to reduce the threat signal, increase pain tolerance, decrease pain unpleasantness and decrease the anxiety and distress associated with pain. Those changes are associated with the recruitment of specific brain areas such as the insula, the amygdala and the hippocampus.
Based on the studies reviewed in this report, we found that the practice of yoga seems to facilitate motor learning, to increase body awareness and to decrease pain. These are associated with a wide variety of changes in terms of brain activity and structure. Further studies are necessary to reveal its precise mechanism of action on the brain and to validate its wider application in clinical settings.
本综述旨在评估瑜伽对大脑在运动表现、身体意识和疼痛方面的影响。
瑜伽在西方国家越来越受欢迎，尤其是因为其独特的身心融合。瑜伽在过去十年中得到了更深入的研究。尽管瑜伽已被证明可以改善认知功能，但很少有研究关注瑜伽对改善运动表现、身体意识或疼痛的影响，以及与之相关的潜在大脑机制。
使用“yoga brain motor”、“yoga brain pain”、“effects yoga brain”和“effects yoga brain motor performance”等关键词对当前文献进行检索。然后，根据运动表现、身体意识和疼痛及其对大脑的作用机制，对这些发现进行讨论。
共检索到 61 篇文章，其中 29 篇因不符合标准而被排除。共有 32 篇文章被纳入本综述，我们根据重点进一步细分：运动表现（n=10）、身体意识（n=14）和疼痛（n=8）。
我们的综述表明，瑜伽通过更好地控制感觉运动节律来增加注意力和减少压力，从而对运动任务的学习速度、速度和准确性产生积极影响。瑜伽似乎还能改善感觉意识和内感受，调节自主输入，增加副交感神经活动，并促进自我调节。瑜伽还能降低威胁信号，提高疼痛耐受力，降低疼痛不适程度，并降低与疼痛相关的焦虑和痛苦。这些变化与特定脑区的募集有关，如脑岛、杏仁核和海马体。
根据本报告中综述的研究，我们发现瑜伽的练习似乎有助于运动学习，提高身体意识，并减轻疼痛。这些与大脑活动和结构的广泛变化有关。需要进一步的研究来揭示其对大脑的确切作用机制，并验证其在临床环境中的更广泛应用。
