Impact of Prajñā yoga on cognition in adolescents with congenital and adventitious visual impairment

Context Numerous scientific studies have investigated the impact of yoga on cognition in children and adults. However, fewer studies have assessed the impact of yogic practices on cognition in children and adolescents with visual impairment. Despite their keen intellectual abilities and advanced linguistic skills, teens with visual impairment often experience difficulties with cognitive control and behavioral regulation. Memory plays an important role in cognition. Besides storing information, memory is also used for recall, defined as the retrieval of information the brain has recently been exposed to, and recognition, defined as the ability to recognize or retrieve the information previously encountered and stored in the brain. Objective The objective of the study was to observe the effectiveness of Prajnā Yoga on enhancing the cognition and verbal memory in adolescents with visual impairment. Degree of visual impairment and age of onset of visual impairment were considered while analyzing the study data. Design An open-trial, single arm, pre–post study design was adopted. 273 adolescents with visual impairment were assessed across India using the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT), at baseline (before the intervention), immediately after the intervention, and at 40 days after the intervention. RAVLT measures recall and recognition through verbal memory. Intervention Prajnā Yoga (PY) or the Art of Living Intuition Program is a unique intervention, based on ancient techniques of Pranayama, Super Brain Yoga, and Meditation, taught to children & adolescents between the ages 5 and 17. Results The mean scores for Recognition (p=0.011) and Immediate recall (p=0.011) improved significantly after PY for the entire study population, regardless of the degree of visual impairment, gender and age of onset. A significant improvement in mean scores for Delayed Recall was seen after 40 days of daily practice (p = 0.007).