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Background/aims: One month of yoga training has been shown to reduce the pulse rate voluntarily without using external cues. Hence, the present study was designed to understand the strategies used by yoga practitioners and autonomic changes associated with voluntary heart rate reduction., Materials and Methods: Fifty volunteers (group mean age ± S.D., 25.4 ± 4.8 years; 25 males) were assessed in two trials on separate days. Each trial was for 12 minutes, with a 'pre' state and 'during' state of 6 minutes each. For both trials the 'pre' state was relaxation with eyes closed. In the 'during' state of Trial I, subjects were asked to voluntarily reduce their heart rate using a strategy of their choice. From their responses to specific questions it was determined that 22 out of 50 persons used breath regulation as a strategy. Hence, in the 'during' state of Trial II, subjects were asked to voluntarily reduce their heart rate by breath regulation., Results: In the first trial, the heart rate was reduced by an average of 19.6 beats per minute and in the second trial (with breath regulation exclusively) an average decrease of 22.2 beats per minute was achieved., Conclusions: Hence, the strategy used did not markedly alter the outcome.

Background/aims: Ancient Indian yoga texts have described four mental states. These are caïcalatä (random thinking), ekāgratā (focusing without meditation), dhāraṇā (meditative focusing), and dhyāna (defocused meditative expansiveness). A previous study compared the performance in a cancellation task at the beginning and end of each of the four mental states (practiced for 20 minutes each, on four separate days) showed an increase in the scores after dhāraṇā Hence, the present study was designed to assess the effects of dhāraṇā (meditative focusing) and ekāgratā (focusing without meditation) on two attention tasks (i) d2 test of attention and (ii) digit symbol substitution test., Materials and Methods: Sixty normal healthy male volunteers with ages ranging from 17 to 38 years (group mean age ± S.D., 24.87 ± 4.95) were studied. Assessments were made before and after the practice of ekāgratā and dhāraṇā on two separate days., Results: After both types of focusing, there was a significant improvement in all measures of the d2 test of attention (TN, E, TN-E, E%, and CP). However, the performance in the digit symbol substitution test was better after dhāraṇā but did not change after ekāgratā., Conclusions: Hence, in summary, dhāraṇā (meditative focusing) and ekāgratā (focusing without meditation) produce nearly comparable results though dhāraṇā (meditative focusing) results in better incidental learning and better accuracy (as assessed by the substitution task).