Yoga and Cognition

In recent times, a lot of people are getting interested in the cognitive processes as there is so much to learn about how we make sense of things and learn. This is all the more relevant in education as globally educators are striving to enhance the teaching-learning outcomes, get their students to pay more attention and enhance the cognitive capabilities of learners.

What is Cognition?

Suppose you are looking for a friend in a crowded place. It means you are using your senses especially vision to look around and grasp all that is there in the environment. You look at each face and internally (in a very minute amount of time) compare it with your friend’s face. You scan through the crowd and locate your friend. In the process you also gather so much information from the environment. If something out of the ordinary happens, say a bluish green beautiful firework, you immediately notice it and then remember it for many days. So cognition is this process where you make sense of this world through the senses, process that information and make memories if they are significant events.

Cognitive processes include: Perception, Attention, Memory, Language processes and decision-making.

Cognitive psychologists are interested in studying these processes through observation, experimentation and analysis. In recent times, they have also become interested in the neural processes that correspond to cognitive functions for a holistic understanding of things.

Life Systems According to Yoga

Before we get into the details of the cognitive processes from the perspective of Yoga, it will be useful to look at the life systems from a yogic point of view.

The Pancha Kosha can be called as five components or sheaths. They are not exactly layers but our system is a composite of these koshas.

Annamaya Kosha: The layer that is created and nourished by the food that we eat. It includes all the physical structures in the body that grow with food intake

Pranamaya Kosha: “Pranamaya” means “made up of vital life energies (prana)”. Prana keeps the body alive, facilitating breathing, digestion, excretion, secretions and speech. Has a direct impact on physical health

Manomaya Kosha: “Manomaya” means “made up of mind”. Refers to our mental processes. This includes the indeterminate mind that is a train of thoughts meaningful or otherwise.

Vignanamaya Kosha: “Vignana” means “composed of the intellect”. Refers to the discriminating faculties of the mind — discriminating between right and wrong, ability to create information, hypothesize, assess and reach intellectual conclusions, perceive future threats, meditate and contemplate.

Anandamaya Kosha :“Anandamaya” means “made of bliss”. The true nature of one’s being which transcends
the body, the flow of energies, the limitations of the mind and the conditioning of the intellect.

The koshas are highly interacting and each one impacts the other. The koshas are not just for humans but for all living beings. However the complexity varies for each living system. While some may have a complex annamaya kosha, some may not. Hence in many ways the human system is considered to be the outcome of complex evolution on all the koshas.

Each of these koshas are involved in the process of cognition and hence keeping them vibrant with yogic practices become important.

When it comes to the internal process especially cognition, 4 components are relevant to look at:

Manas, Chitta, Buddhi and Ahamkara

Manas is the indeterminate mind made up of thoughts. Manas does not need any direction, it just flows following any train of thought and can comfortable switch from one to another.

Chitta is a huge storehouse of memory of past events and people. Chitta can refer to specific individuated memory or to a larger memory say evolution or DNA etc where key information is stored and retrieved when needed.

Buddhi is intellect and gives direction to the thoughts. It helps us to process information and make sense of it through pre-existing knowledge or create new knowledge.

Ahamkara is a very important part of individuated consciousness. It helps develop an identity and say “I did it”. It gives us a feeling of being a complete entity and helps us to understand our boundaries: what we are and what we are not.

How Yoga can help Cognition

Several scientific studies combining brain images and cognitive tests have been conducted to understand how Yoga helps cognition.

What do they study

Many of these studies are designed to look at how yogic practices such as Pranayama or Dharana or Yoga nidra can enhance cognition: attention, memory. These studies often look at speed and accuracy of processing.

Some of these studies are also designed to look at larger well-being of which cognition is one aspect.

How do they study

These studies involve the study of the brain through instruments like fMRI, EEG, MEG or PET as well as cognitive tasks like:

Cancellation tasks: Lines circles, letters, or stars are drawn in random positions on a sheet of paper and participants are asked to cancel all the targets.

Stroop Test: The Stroop Color and Word Test (SCWT) is a neuropsychological test extensively used to assess the ability to inhibit cognitive interference that occurs when the processing of a specific stimulus feature impedes the simultaneous processing of a second stimulus attribute, well-known as the Stroop Effect. (Ref)

The Trail Making Test is a neuropsychological test of visual attention and task switching. It consists of two parts in which the subject is instructed to connect a set of 25 dots as quickly as possible while still maintaining accuracy.[Ref] The test can provide information about visual search speed, scanning, speed of processing, mental flexibility, as well as executive functioning.

Impact

• Yogic practices help to enhance attention especially in children with attention deficit
• Yoga improves reaction times and decreases omission errors on tasks
• Yoga also enhance cognitive functions in older adults and those with disorders
• Yoga enhances neural activity and learning in students

References

· Cohen, S. C., Harvey, D. J., Shields, R. H., Shields, G. S., Rashedi, R. N., Tancredi, D. J., … & Schweitzer, J. B. (2018). Effects of Yoga on Attention, Impulsivity, and Hyperactivity in Preschool-Aged Children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 39(3), 200–209.

· Govindaraj, R., Naik, S., Manjunath, N. K., Mehta, U. M., Gangadhar, B. N., & Varambally, S. (2018). Add-on yoga therapy for social cognition in schizophrenia: A pilot study. International journal of yoga, 11(3), 242.

· Rajani, S. N., Indla, Y. R., Archana, R., & Rajesh, P. (2015). Role of yoga on cardic autonomic function tests and cognition in type 2 diabetes. International journal of research in ayurveda and pharmacy, 6(6), 764.

· Purohit, S. P., & Pradhan, B. (2017). Effect of yoga program on executive functions of adolescents dwelling in an orphan home: a randomized controlled study. Journal of traditional and complementary medicine, 7(1), 99–105.

· Thomas, J. I., & Venkatesh, D. (2017). A comparative study of the effects of superbrain yoga and aerobic exercise on cognitive functions. National Journal of Physiology, Pharmacy and Pharmacology, 7(9), 895.