title: Nostril dominance at rest associated with performance of a left hemisphere-specific cancellation task.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  An association has been reported between the dominant nostril through which we breathe and the cerebral hemisphere found to be active.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To understand the association between the nostril dominant at rest and the performance in a cancellation task using verbal information-a left hemisphere task.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two hundred eighty-nine normal, healthy volunteers attending a one week nonresidential yoga camp were assessed in a single 30 minute period. Nostril dominance was assessed using a standard method. After this, participants were given the letter cancellation task and nostril dominance was again checked. For each participant, the numbers of letters that had been left out and wrongly cancelled as well as total errors were assessed. The Mann-Whitney u test and Chi-Square test were used to assess whether there was a significant difference in cancellation task performance between right and left nostril-dominant persons.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was no statistically significant difference between right and left nostril-dominant participants.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present results do not support previous findings of contralateral cerebral hemisphere improvement with breathing through a specific nostril.
authors.affiliation: Department of Yoga and Bioscience, Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana, Bangalore, India.
authors.forename: Sasmita
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Samantaray
authors.forename: Shirley
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Telles