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Examining the Acute Effects of Hatha Yoga and Mindfulness Meditation on Executive Function and Mood

DOI:10.1007/s12671-016-0661-2
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Kimberley Luu at University of Waterloo
Kimberley Luu
Peter Hall at University of Waterloo
Peter Hall
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Abstract

The objective of this study was to compare the acute effects of hatha yoga and mindfulness meditation on executive function and mood. Using a within-subjects experimental design, 31 moderately experienced hatha yoga practitioners (mean age 27.71 ± 8.32) completed three counterbalanced sessions: hatha yoga (conscious movement and meditation), meditation (mindfulness of breath, emotions, thoughts, and body sensations), and a reading control task. Executive function was assessed using the Stroop task at baseline and at two follow-up points (5 and 10 min post-session). Self-reported mood was measured using the Profile of Mood States (POMS) at baseline and immediately following each session. Findings indicated that hatha yoga (p = .002) and meditation (p = .044) both resulted in significantly improved Stroop performance, though the two conditions did not differ significantly from each other (p = .728). The cognitive benefits in both cases were evident at the 10-min post-session delay but not at the 5-min post-session delay. With respect to mood outcomes, hatha yoga (p < .001) and meditation (p = .050) both resulted in significantly improved POMS total mood scores. Hatha yoga and meditation did not differ significantly from each other in regard to POMS total mood (p = .079), though hatha yoga showed significantly greater benefits on the vigor-activity subscale (p = .006). Overall, findings suggest that acute bouts of hatha yoga and mindfulness meditation benefit executive function and mood to a similar degree.
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Examining the Acute Effects of Hatha Yoga and Mindfulness
Meditation on Executive Function and Mood
Kimberley Luu
1
&Peter A. Hall
1,2
Published online: 26 December 2016
#Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016
Abstract The objective of this study was to compare the
acute effects of hatha yoga and mindfulness meditation on
executive function and mood. Using a within-subjects exper-
imental design, 31 moderately experienced hatha yoga practi-
tioners (mean age 27.71 ± 8.32) completed three
counterbalanced sessions: hatha yoga (conscious movement
and meditation), meditation (mindfulness of breath, emotions,
thoughts, and body sensations), and a reading control task.
Executive function was assessed using the Stroop task at base-
line and at two follow-up points (5 and 10 min post-session).
Self-reported mood was measured using the Profile of Mood
States (POMS) at baseline and immediately following each
session. Findings indicated that hatha yoga (p= .002) and
meditation (p= .044) both resulted in significantly improved
Stroop performance, though the two conditions did not differ
significantly from each other (p= .728). The cognitive bene-
fits in both cases were evident at the 10-min post-session delay
but not at the 5-min post-session delay. With respect to mood
outcomes, hatha yoga (p<.001)andmeditation(p=.050)
both resulted in significantly improved POMS total mood
scores. Hatha yoga and meditation did not differ significantly
from each other in regard to POMS total mood (p=.079),
though hatha yoga showed significantly greater benefits on
the vigor-activity subscale (p=.006).Overall,findingssug-
gest that acute bouts of hatha yoga and mindfulness medita-
tion benefit executive function and mood to a similar degree.
Keywords Yog a .Mindfulness meditation .Exercise .
Cognition .Executive function .Mood
Introduction
Yoga is an ancient Indian practice which traditionally aims to
cultivate mind-body awareness and higher states of conscious-
ness (Bryant 2009). Hatha yoga is the most common style of
yoga practiced in Western societies, and involves mindful
physical posturing, breathing exercises, and meditation
(Muktibodhananda 2012). A survey of a nationally represen-
tative sample estimated that approximately 21 million US cit-
izens practiced hatha yoga in 2012 (Cramer et al. 2016); this
represents a tripling of the number of hatha yoga practitioners
in a 15-year span (1998–2012; Saper et al. 2004). These sta-
tistics suggest that hatha yoga is becoming an increasingly
popular modality of exercise in North America.
Meditation is another common complementary practice
in Western societies (Clarke et al. 2015), and can be defined
as mental training which engages attentional and emotion-
regulation abilities through (self- or other-) guided focus on
specific objects, intentions, or internal and external envi-
ronments (Raffone and Srinivasan 2010;Tangetal.
2015). Mindfulness meditation specifically has been oper-
ationalized as the practice of non-judgemental observation
of present moment thoughts, emotions, and body sensations
with openness and acceptance (Bishop et al. 2004).
Mindfulness meditation can be practiced on its own or as
integrated with physical posturing, as is the case with hatha
yoga (Shelov et al. 2009).
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article
(doi:10.1007/s12671-016-0661-2) contains supplementary material,
which is available to authorized users.
*Kimberley Luu
kluu@uwaterloo.ca
1
School of Public Health and Health Systems, University of Waterloo,
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
2
Department of Kinesiology, University of Waterloo, BMH 1013, 200
University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada
Mindfulness (2017) 8:873–880
DOI 10.1007/s12671-016-0661-2
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
... Similarly, the recent research of Rusiñol-Rodriguez et al. (2020) highlighted the hypnotic, contemplative and relaxing nature of this activity. Since one major finding of the impact of AF mediation and mindfulness is their beneficial effects on EF in both adults (Moore and Malinowski, 2009;Gallant, 2016;Luu and Hall, 2017;Cásedas et al., 2019) and children and adolescents (Thurman and Torsney, 2014;Kiani et al., 2017), on may expect that knitting practice could be favorable for EF as well. The purpose of the present research was then to investigate this claim, that is, whether a non-academic activity like knitting could have an impact on schoolchildren aged 9-11 EF. ...
... The purpose of this research was to examine the effects of knitting on the cognitive sphere of school-age children. Considering together the likeness of knitting practice with AF meditation (Turney, 2009;Riley et al., 2013;Corkhill et al., 2014;Alhers and Thomas, 2019) and the influence of AF meditation on EF (Moore and Malinowski, 2009;Thurman and Torsney, 2014;Gallant, 2016;Kiani et al., 2017;Luu and Hall, 2017;Cásedas et al., 2019), two experiments were designed to test the assumption that knitting practice could optimized executive functions such as inhibition. Experiment 1 assessed the impact of an acute knitting bout on the pupils' motor cool inhibition abilities using a cool stop-signal task, while Experiment 2 examined its influence using both a cool and a hot stop-signal tasks. ...
... The results indicate an improvement in both cool and hot inhibition abilities, that is when inhibition operates either on neutral (i.e., Experiment 1) or emotionally charged stimuli (i.e., Experiment 2). More research is needed to examine whether an acute knitting boot may impact other executive functions, such as mental flexibility and the updating of working memory, as it has been observed for meditation (Moore and Malinowski, 2009;Thurman and Torsney, 2014;Gallant, 2016;Kiani et al., 2017;Luu and Hall, 2017;Cásedas et al., 2019). In addition, in keeping with the studies on aerobic exercise, determining whether EF is more sensitive to knitting practice when individuals undergo Frontiers in Psychology 10 frontiersin.org ...
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Across two experiments, the presented research explored the impact of a knitting bout on elementary school pupils’ inhibition abilities. They proposed an accurate measure of the pupils’ inhibition abilities through the use of a stop-signal paradigm. In order to take into account, the differentiation between cool and hot inhibitions abilities, the emotional content of the stimuli was manipulated across experiments. Neutral materials were used in Experiment 1 when emotionally charged materials were in Experiment 2. The findings of both experiments highlighted a beneficial impact of the knitting bout on children’s inhibition abilities. While the results of Experiment 1 showed an optimization of inhibition abilities for the knitting session group in comparison to the control group, Experiment 2 revealed a disappearance of the effect of the emotional content on these abilities as well. Proposals as to why EF could be sensitive to knitting practice are discussed.
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... In addition, previous studies measured only single indicators of executive function, such as inhibitory control (Luu & Hall, 2017), working memory (Bachmann et al., 2018) or cognitive flexibility (Shapero et al., 2018). Since executive functions are a family of cognitive processes (Diamond, 2013), this study aimed to investigate the effects of mindfulness training on all three subfunctions of executive function in youths with depression. ...
... The inhibitory control was measured by the Stroop task (Stroop, 1935), which is a reliable and valid measurement of inhibitory control (Luu & Hall, 2017). The difference in reaction time between the colorword congruent condition and the color-word incongruent condition (Stroop effect size) was used as an indicator of inhibitory control, with a lower Stroop effect size representing higher inhibitory control. ...
... In the post-intervention outcome of the inhibitory control task, the Stroop effect size was smaller in the MTG than that in the WCG, which is consistent with previous results regarding the effects of mindfulness training on inhibitory control (Luu & Hall, 2017). Mindfulness training has been studied to emphasize that it can facilitate individuals' deautomation processes, i.e., reduce the habituation of cognitive behaviors (Wang et al., 2012). ...
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... The Stroop task involves mainly cognitive flexibility and attention allocation to select relevant information, as well as inhibition to avoid distraction [28][29][30]. It has been previously used in many MM studies to assess attention (e.g., [31]), and/or cognitive flexibility (e.g., [5]), and/or inhibition (e.g., [9,22]). ...
... Following both interventions, their cognitive performance was tested again (T AL after AL and T MM after MM). A ten minutes delay post-intervention was respected in order to optimize the chances of observing acute effects [22]. During the ten-minute break after the AL, participants were asked to summarize the content of the recording they just listened to. ...
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... After allocation, the participants were individually tested at baseline (T0) and after their respective 15-min intervention (T1). A 10-min delay post-intervention was respected before testing (T1) in order to optimize the chances of observing acute effects (Luu and Hall, 2017). During this break, the participant completed a short questionnaire to assess their engagement in the allocated intervention (TMS following the MM session, Control Quiz following the control intervention). ...
... When using separate tasks based on different frameworks, inconsistent results have been found following shortterm MM practice. For perceptual inhibition, some studies reported benefits [e.g., (Luu and Hall, 2017)] while others reported no effects [e.g., (Polak, 2009)]. Regarding motor inhibition, which has been scarcely investigated, studies reported short-term MM effects at the neural level (Andreu et al., 2018), but not at the behavioral level (Andreu et al., 2018;Jaiswal et al., 2020;Baranski, 2021). ...
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... The difference between the studies may have occurred due to CHO consumption. Another study compared the acute effects of hatha yoga practice and mindfulness intervention on cognitive functions and mood (Luu and Hall, 2017). The researchers found that both interventions were effective in improving either cognitive task performance or mood levels at the same levelwhen compared to the control group. ...
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... Exercising yoga produces healthy energy, vital for the immune system to work efficiently. Considering all the benefits of performing yoga by humans, the United Nations general assembly declared 21 June as "International Yoga Day." Another research by Luu et al., [4] showed that acute bursts of Hatha yoga and mindfulness meditation are proven to enhance organizational performance and mood. Catherine Woodyards' et al., [5] study indicates that yogic activities increase muscle strength and body endurance, encourage, and strengthen respiratory and cardiovascular capacity and alcohol rehabilitation, alleviate fatigue, stress, depression, and chronic pain, enhance sleep cycles, and improve sleep general health and quality of life. ...
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... In an assessment of the different parameters of mindfulness, research has examined how long the effects of an acute mindfulness exposure last, and whether the yoga practice that is included in many mindfulness interventions (e.g., MBSR and MBCT) contributes to the cognitive performance changes that have been noted in the literature. Luu and Hall (2017) had hatha yoga practitioners complete a yoga session, a mindfulness session, and a reading control task (in three separate visits to the research center). Each session lasted 25 min. ...
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... Compared with inhibition control, there is increasing attention being paid to demonstrating the effect of a single bout of physical activity on working memory performance [16,26,62,63] and cognitive flexibility performance [26,41,64,65] in the preadolescent subpopulation. Specifically, Ishihara et al. [66] announced that working memory and inhibitory control achieved the best benefit after 50-min game-based tennis lessons compared to techniquebased lessons and watching TV. ...
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  • Jan 1982
Preface to the American Edition Preface to the Original Edition Introduction Patanjali and the Exegetical Literature Some Philosophical Concepts of Kriya-Yoga Overview of Topics Discussed by Patanjali Annotated Translation Chapter One: Samadhi-Pada Chapter Two: Sadhana-Pada Chapter Three: Vibhuti-Pada Chapter Four: Kaivalya-Pada Continuous Translation Word Index to the Yoga-Sutra Bibliography Guide to the Pronunciation of Sanskrit Index About the Author
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