All participants completed a 6-min walk test to assess fitness, psychosocial and demographic questionnaires; and underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRIs) to assess gray matter volume and brain activation. Height and weight were assessed as well.

To go a bit further, all participants completed an exercise questionnaire
that assessed typical weekly engagement in physical activity. Experienced yoga practitioners were asked to complete a separate form to gather their yoga history which included—years of yoga training, type of yoga practice, dose of weekly yoga practice and time spent in performing postures, breathing and meditative exercises.

Measures and procedures

During the functional MRI scan, participants completed a Sternberg working memory task so that the encoding, maintenance and retrieval subcomponent processes of working memory could be investigated.

For each of the 40 trials, participants were instructed to remember a set of four upper-case letters that were presented for 2 seconds. After this initial presentation, a fixation cross was displayed for 2 seconds, followed by the presentation of a single lower-case probe letter for another 2 seconds. Participants were asked to indicate as quickly as possible whether the probe letter was present in the original set of upper-case letters. The participants provided yes/no responses.

This was all to measure test accuracy - the number of correct yes/no responses out of 40 trials and by calculating the average reaction time (seconds) in making a response.

Sternberg Working Memory Task

In a study assessing the neurological impacts of yoga, the participant cohort consisted of $$ 13 $$ experienced yoga practitioners (i.e., having more than $$ 3 $$ years of regular yoga practice, $$ > 3 $$ days a week). Control participants reported no current or past experience with yoga or any other type of mind-body practice.

Pepperdine University

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Yoga is a mind-body based physical activity that has demonstrated a
variety of physiological, psychological and cognitive health benefits. The current study aimed to determine the differences in gray matter volume
of the hippocampus, thalamus and other areas involved in brain activation during the Sternberg working memory task.

Gray matter volume differences were observed in the left hippocampus, showing greater volume in experienced yoga practitioners compared to non-practitioners. Reaction time and accuracy on the task did not differ between the groups.

All in all, results suggested an association between regular long-term yoga practice and differential structure and function of specific brain regions involved in executive function, specifically working memory, which has previously shown to improve with yoga practice.

Summary of article

Gothe, N. P., Hayes, J. M., Temali, C., & Damoiseaux, J. S. (2018). Differences in brain structure and function among yoga practitioners and controls. Frontiers in integrative neuroscience, 12, 26.

Reference for Differences in Brain Structure and Function Among Yoga Practitioners and Controls

There were no group differences on demographic measures of income, education, and in self-reported levels of physical activity/the estimated levels of physical fitness. On average the yoga practitioners had 9.31 years of yoga experience.

Gray matter volume differences were observed in the left hippocampus, showing greater volume in experienced yoga practitioners compared to non-practitioners. The functional MRI results revealed less activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (executive control functions such as working memory) in yoga practitioners during the Sternberg working memory task, compared to controls during the encoding phase of the Sternberg task. Reaction time and accuracy on the task did not differ between the groups.

Summary of Results

Our results suggest an association between regular long-term yoga
practice and differential structures and functions of specific brain regions involved in executive function, specifically working memory, which has previously shown to improve with yoga practice. The results previously discussed contribute to our overall limited understanding of the neurological correlations of yoga practice.


Future studies need to examine intervention effects of yoga and explore its potential to maintain and improve cognitive health across the lifespan through longitudinal and intervention studies. Additionally, future studies should strive to use tasks with a higher cognitive load (i.e. more than just the Sternberg working memory task) so that the association between task performance and brain measures can be explained.

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