If you don’t like or can’t do aerobic exercise for some reason, try yoga to improve brain health, as scientists led by India’s Neha Gothe have found evidence that yoga works many of the same brain structures and — improves functions that benefit from aerobic exercise.
The findings are based on a review focusing on 11 studies examining the relationship between yoga practice and brain health.
Five of the studies involved individuals with no background in yoga practice participating in one or more yoga sessions per week over a period of 10-24 weeks, comparing brain health at the start and end of the intervention.
The other studies measured brain differences between individuals who regularly practice yoga and those who don’t.
Each of the studies used brain imaging techniques such as MRI and all involved Hatha yoga, including body movements, meditation and breathing exercises, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign team said.
“From these 11 studies, we’ve identified some brain regions that consistently emerge, and they’re surprisingly not much different from what we see in exercise research,” said Gothe, a professor of kinesiology and community health at the University of Illinois, Neha, who led the research with Wayne State University psychology professor Jessica Damoiseaux.
“For example, we see an increase in hippocampal volume with yoga practice,” she added.
Many studies on the brain effects of aerobic exercise have shown similar increases in hippocampal size over time.
The hippocampus is involved in memory processing and is known to shrink with age.
“It’s also the structure that is first affected in dementia and Alzheimer’s disease,” Gothe said in a paper published in the journal Brain Plasticity.
While many of the studies are exploratory and inconclusive, the research points to other important brain changes associated with regular yoga practice, Damoiseaux said.
The amygdala, a brain structure that contributes to emotional regulation, tends to be larger in yoga practitioners than in their peers who don’t practice yoga.
The prefrontal cortex, cingulate cortex, and brain networks such as the default mode network are also often larger or more efficient in those who regularly practice yoga.
“The prefrontal cortex, a brain region just behind the forehead, is essential for planning, decision-making, multitasking, thinking about your options, and choosing the right option,” Damoiseaux noted.
“The default mode network is a set of brain regions involved in self-thinking, planning and memory”.
The studies also show that the brain changes seen in individuals who practice yoga are associated with better performance on cognitive tests or measures of emotional regulation.
The discovery that yoga may have similar effects on the brain as aerobic exercise is intriguing and warrants more research, researchers say.
“Yoga is not aerobic in nature, so there must be other mechanisms leading to these brain changes,” she said. “So far, we don’t have the evidence to identify what those mechanisms are.”
Improving emotional regulation is a key to yoga’s positive effects on the brain.
“In one of my earlier studies, we looked at how yoga changes the cortisol stress response,” Gothe said.
“We found that those who practiced yoga for eight weeks had an attenuated cortisol response to stress that was associated with better performance on tests of decision making, task switching and attention.”
Yoga helps people with or without anxiety disorders manage their stress.
“The practice of yoga helps improve emotional regulation to reduce stress, anxiety and depression,” she said.
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