title: Effect of Yoga practice on reducing cognitive-motor interference for improving dynamic balance control in healthy adults.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of our study was to investigate the effects of Yoga on reducing cognitive-motor interference (CMI) for maintaining balance control during varied balance tasks.
  
  
  METHODS
  Yoga (N=10) and age-similar non-practitioners (N=10) performed three balance tasks including the Limits of Stability test (LOS - Intentional balance), Motor Control test (MCT - Reactive balance), and Sensory Organization Test (SOT -condition 6: inducing both somatosensory and visual conflicts) under single-task (ST) and dual-task (DT, addition of a cognitive working memory task) conditions. The motor performance was assessed by recording the response time (RT) and movement velocity (MV) of the center of pressure (CoP) on LOS test, weight symmetry (WS) of CoP on the MCT test and equilibrium (EQ) of CoP on the SOT test. Cognitive performance was recorded as the number of correct responses enumerated in sitting (ST) and under DT conditions. The Motor cost (MC) and cognitive cost (CC) were computed using the formula ([ST-DT]/ST)*100 for all the variables. Greater cost indicates lower performance under DT versus ST condition.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The Yoga group showed a significantly lesser MC for both MCT and SOT tests (p<0.05) in comparison to their counterparts. The CC were significantly lower on LOS and MCT test for the Yoga group (p<0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results suggest that Yoga practice can significantly reduce CMI by improving allocation and utilization of attentional resources for both balance control and executive cognitive functioning; thus resulting in better performance under DT conditions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Therapy, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60612, United States.
authors.forename: Savitha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Subramaniam
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Therapy, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60612, United States. Electronic address: tbhatt6@uic.edu.
authors.forename: Tanvi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bhatt
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019122:Meditation / Q000523:psychology*; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D015013:Yoga / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Cognitive-motor interference; Dual-tasking; Yoga