ABSTRACT High Frequency Yoga Breathing For Enhanced Cognition

Abstract

Yoga includes several techniques including conscious control of the breath with awareness and precision, these are called pranayamas or voluntary regulated breathing in which the practitioners alter various aspects of breathing such as the rate and depth among other factors. One such technique involves forceful exhalation and breathing at a high frequency approximately 1.0 Hz, though rates are high as 2.0 Hz are known. Traditionally this practice called kapalabhati or high frequency yoga breathing (HFYB) literally means shining forehead (kapala = cranium or forehead, bhati = shining in Sanskrit). The name is indirectly suggestive of stimulation. Traditionally HFYB is believed to clean air passages, stimulate the abdominal organs, improve autonomic balance, activate brain cells concerned with memory and other functions, increase concentration, improve memory, and increase intellectual faculties. In a series of studies HFYB improves the speed of an attention task, shifting and sustained attention, sympathetic activity, fine motor skills, visual discrimination, decrease in cortical oxy-hemoglobin (based on fNIRS) due to an increase in attention and increase in oxygen consumption, and in a separate study HFYB showed a reduction in optical illusion. Hence HFYB is a pranayama useful to improve autonomic and cognitive function. The details of the studies are described in the manuscript.

Full text

ABSTRACT
High Frequency Yoga Breathing For Enhanced Cognition
Ram Kumar Gupta <ramkumar.gupta@prft.co.in>, Shirley Telles and Acharya Balkrishna
Patanjali Research Foundation, Patanjali Yogpeeth, Haridwar, India
www.patanjaliresearchfoundation.com
Yoga includes several techniques including conscious control of the breath with awareness and
precision, these are called pranayamas or voluntary regulated breathing in which the
practitioners alter various aspects of breathing such as the rate and depth among other factors.
One such technique involves forceful exhalation and breathing at a high frequency
approximately 1.0 Hz, though rates are high as 2.0 Hz are known. Traditionally this practice
called kapalabhati or high frequency yoga breathing (HFYB) literally means shining forehead
(kapala = cranium or forehead, bhati = shining in Sanskrit). The name is indirectly suggestive of
stimulation. Traditionally HFYB is believed to clean air passages, stimulate the abdominal
organs, improve autonomic balance, activate brain cells concerned with memory and other
functions, increase concentration, improve memory, and increase intellectual faculties. In a series
of studies HFYB improves the speed of an attention task, shifting and sustained attention,
sympathetic activity, fine motor skills, visual discrimination, decrease in cortical oxy-
hemoglobin (based on fNIRS) due to an increase in attention and increase in oxygen
consumption, and in a separate study HFYB showed a reduction in optical illusion. Hence
HFYB is a pranayama useful to improve autonomic and cognitive function. The details of the
studies are described in the manuscript.
Keywords: High frequency yoga breathing, cognitive functions, attention, autonomic functions