Processing of proprioceptive and vestibular body signals and self-transcendence in Ashtanga yoga practitioners
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience September 22, 2014 Francesca eFiori, Nicole eDavid, Salvatore Maria Aglioti
Yoga practitioners are more accurate than non-experts at judging verticality when a misleading visual frame is present, a skill known as field-independence. They also score higher on self-transcendence, a personality trait related to spiritual experiences. Among yoga practitioners, those with higher self-transcendence are even less influenced by the visual context, suggesting that this trait helps them rely more on internal body signals (vestibular and proprioceptive) rather than external visual cues. The findings indicate that body expertise and personality together shape how the brain weights sensory information.