12 Weeks of Kindergarten-Based Yoga Practice Increases Visual Attention, Visual-Motor Precision and Decreases Behavior of Inattention and Hyperactivity in 5-Year-Old Children

The present study assesses the impact of Kindergarten-based yoga on cognitive performance, visual-motor coordination, and behavior of inattention and hyperactivity in 5-year-old children. In this randomized controlled trial, 45 children (28 female; 17 male; 5.2 ± 0.4 years) participated. Over 12 weeks, 15 children performed Hatha-yoga twice a week for 30 min, another 15 children performed generic physical education (PE) twice a week for 30 min, and 15 children performed no kind of physical activities, serving as control group (CG). Prior to (T0) and after 12 weeks (T1), all participants completed Visual Attention and Visuomotor Precision subtests of Neuropsychological Evaluation Battery and teachers evaluated children’s behavior of inattention and hyperactivity with the Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Rating Scale-IV. At T0, no significant differences between groups appeared. Repeated measures analysis of variance revealed that following Bonferroni–Holm corrections yoga, in comparison to PE and CG, had a significant positive impact on the development on behavior of inattention and hyperactivity. Further, yoga has a significant positive impact on completion times in two visumotor precision tasks in comparison to PE. Finally, results indicate a significant positive effect of yoga on visual attention scores in comparison to CG. 12 weeks of Kindergarten-based yoga improves selected visual attention and visual-motor precision parameters and decreases behavior of inattention and hyperactivity in 5-year-old children. Consequently, yoga represents a sufficient and cost-benefit effective exercise which could enhance cognitive and behavioral factors relevant for learning and academic achievement among young children

The Impact of Partial Sleep Deprivation on the Diurnal Variations of Cognitive Performance in Trained Subjects

AbstractThe aim of this study was to investigate the effect of partial sleep deprivation on the diurnal variations of cognitive performance of handball goalkeepers. Twelve handball goalkeepers (18.5±1.7 years; 8.3±2.4 years of experiment) performed 3 cognitive tasks by the use of the reaction time (RT), the stroop, and the barrage tests (to evaluate the RT, the selective and supported attention respectively) following 2 situations of sleep deprivation (in the beginning or in the end of the night) and a control situation. The tests were performed at 08:00 and 16:00. Our results showed an increased RT and a fall of the level of the attention after the partial sleep deprivation in the afternoon hours. However, the partial sleep deprivation didn’t affect the morning cognitive performance. In conclusion, partial sleep deprivation affects the diurnal variation of cognitive performance by increasing the RT and reducing the attentional capacities in the afternoon hours