Yoga practice and body-related sensory conflict monitoring

We tested the hypothesis that non-visual physical practice may alter the representation and the awareness of one’s own body by exploring the impact of Ashtanga Yoga (AY) on a number of body-related perceptual tasks. AY is a unique style of yoga that focuses on the non-visual experience of the body in space where practitioners gain a better sense of body proprioception in order to correctly execute the yoga postures. To measure different indexes of body representations, we tested AY and non yoga participants using behavioural tests tapping the ability to use one's own body representation to solve body-related perceptual conflicts like those involved in the Rod and Frame Test (RFT) and the Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI). We investigated also whether Ashtanga Yoga practice alters visual body/action representations by testing participants on a body form/identity discrimination task. Furthermore we used personality scales in order to find any correlation between the performance on behavioral tests and personality changes: Self-transcendence (TCI), Interoceptive Awareness (BPQ), Empathy IRI (Empathetic Concern & Perspective taking scales), Self-report Altruism scale and TCI (Cooperativeness scales), Interference-Inhibition (Stroop Test). We found that yogis performed better in the assessment of verticality, either in tilted and not tilted frame conditions in the RFT; advanced practitioners claim increased concentration, inner focus, increased self-awareness and self-transcendence but do not show higher self-interoceptive awareness compared to non-yogis. Yoga practice does not alter visual body or embodied representations that are activated when viewing other people’s body/actions.