Practicing Alternate Nostril Breathing on Long Run Affect P300 and Visual Evoked Potential among Medical Students

Introduction: Alternate nostril breathing (ANB) is an integral part of pranayama. Pranayama is a technique of controlled breathing. Cardiorespiratory parameters, evoked potentials and cognition are known to get altered immediately after practicing Alternate nostril breathing (ANB). Though, number of studies were done to know the immediate effect of ANB, very few studies were done among medical students in south India to know its effect on practicing for 6 weeks. Hence, this study was chosen.

Objectives: To record & compare VEP parameters and P300 before and after 6 weeks of ANB among medical college students.

Materials and Methods: After getting institution ethical committee clearance, informed consent was obtained from both male and female volunteers, fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria. P300 auditory event related potential and visual evoked potential were recorded before and after 6 weeks of practicing ANB in 100 undergraduate medical college students in the department of Physiology.

Results: VEP parameters and P300 were tabulated as Mean±SD and analyzed using SPSS 23. Students paired t test was used to compare the parameters before and after ANB. N2-P300 (µV), P100 (ms), N75(ms), N145(ms) and N74-P100 (µV) were found to be significantly different after ANB among the medical students. Students unpaired test was also used to compare among male and female students.

Discussion: Regular practice of ANB was found to increase the amplitude of P300, decrease the latency and increase the amplitude of VEP parameter among medical students.

Conclusion: Students were advised to practice pranayama regularly to improve cognition, for faster nerve conduction and recruitment of nerve fibers as evidenced by change in P300 and VEP parameters.