Twelve-Week Yoga vs. Aerobic Cycling Initiation in Sedentary Healthy Subjects: A Behavioral and Multiparametric Interventional PET/MR Study
Frontiers in Psychiatry October 18, 2021 June van Aalst, Lise Jennen, Koen Demyttenaere et al. 9 citations
A 12-week yoga intervention, compared with indoor cycling, improved interoceptive awareness and perceived cognitive function in healthy female beginners. Thirty healthy women (average age 28.4 years) were randomly assigned to yoga or cycling. Yoga participants reported higher interoceptive awareness and better cognitive functioning than the cycling group. No significant differences in glucose metabolism, synaptic density, or gray matter volume were detected between groups. The cycling group showed increased relative glucose metabolism in the parahippocampal/fusiform gyrus and cerebellum. The authors suggest that longer or more frequent yoga practice may be needed to detect cerebral metabolic or morphologic changes at the macroscopic level.