How yoga changes the brain
According to this article, practicing yoga yields numerous benefits to brain and mental health. Researchers studied the amount of gray matter in specific brain areas within participants who practice yoga regularly and those who do not practice at all. Chantal Villemure, the lead experimenter says, “We found that with more hours of practice per week, certain areas were more enlarged,”. During a typical Western-yoga practice, 70% of the time is dedicated to physical movements, 20% to meditation, and 10% to breathing techniques.
In yoga, one of the main focuses is being mindful of one’s own body and where it is in a given space; the research found that those who practice yoga, or yogis, have a larger volume in their somatosensory cortex which is an area that creates the mental map of the body. Another common part of yoga practice is centering one’s attention and being present in the moment; the research supports this in their finding that the superior parietal cortex which directs attention, also has increased volume in yogis. The hippocampus, an area heavily involved in dealing with stress was found to be enlarged in yogis as well, which supports the notion that yoga reduces and relieves stress.
I found this article very interesting especially as someone who frequently practices yoga. I was previously aware of the mental health benefits of practicing yoga and after practicing, I always feel calm and relaxed with a very centered, thoughtful mind. The idea that yoga channels certain areas of the brain and stimulates them makes sense to me, however, I am confused about why the areas being enlarged is such an important point in this article. At the beginning of the semester we learned that brain size is not indicative of brain power or intelligence so I wonder why so much emphasis is placed on the enlargement of these brain areas during yoga practice.
After reading your blog post and the article I also became curious about what the enlargement of certain brain areas could mean. I found an interesting article called “Mental maps: Route-learning changes brain tissue.” This article explores the enlargement of the hippocampus’ in cap drivers in London. The researchers explained that the hippocampus has a role in spatial learning, and that repeated exposure to information about special layouts can lead to a re-wiring of that area of the brain. They concluded that the changes to the structure, including an increase in size, is the result of these structural changes, and the modification in connections that allow for the hippocampus to communicate to other parts of the brain. Since yoga requires the individual to know a lot of information about their location of body in space, it might make sense that a similar mechanism is at play.
ReplyDeleteI have included the link to the article I found:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151027123859.htm
Your post sparked my interest and I decided to research the enlarged regions of the brain from practicing yoga a little further. I found an article on a research study (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26938433) that found that long-term yoga meditation also results in increased grey matter volume in the insula cortex. We know that the insula cortex functions as a homunculus of our organs, but I also read in our book that the insula and the anterior cingulate cortex are active when people recognize their own faces, identify memories as their own, and recognize descriptions of themselves (chapter 15, p. 504). I thought that was interesting given that practicing yoga involves centering one's attention and being present in the moment, as you mentioned before.
ReplyDeleteMy wife takes yoga 3-4 days per week and she claims that it helps her thought process, her meditation improves the gray matter allowing her to have better memory and a clear sense of thought. She also read the article and now I need to take yoga with her. Thanks. Great article
ReplyDeleteI knew that yoga had physical health benefits, but I did not understand how great of an impact it had on the mental health of a person. I have been trying to start practicing yoga for a few months now, I even bought my mat. However, with finals coming up I am definitely about to start now that I know and understand the mental health benefits.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting how physical activities impact not only our mental health but also our brain structures. I knew that yoga has many benefits to our body and mind however every time I tried yoga I could not benefit from it. I could not find the inner peace or concentrate my attention on one thing. I wonder if people that simply cannot do yoga, have a different brain structure or it is only a matter of time and practice
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