Background: Electronic gaming media has become an integral part of the lives of school children. Previous research suggested that action video game playing improves cognitive performance, leading to better visual and attentional skills. On the contrary, other studies have concluded that such gaming activities are more likely to have multiple ill effects on the psychological and physical health of young adults. Visual reaction time has already served to be a good indicator of aptitude in sports involving quick reflexes. However, there is insufficient knowledge about the effects of gaming media exposure on cognitive patterns, as assessed by visual reaction time, especially in Indians. Hence this study was undertaken to estimate the effect of the usage of electronic gaming media on the simple visual reaction time of Indian school children.Methods: Healthy male school-going children in the age group 9-12 years, who were frequently exposed to electronic gaming media for not less than 7-9 hours per week along with children who did not play video games but had normal physical activity (n=38 in each group) were included in this study. Visual reaction time, using a red light, was estimated in the participants.Result: Visual reaction time was found to be significantly decreased in children who played computer games regularly, as compared to controls. A significant negative correlation was also seen, in the study group, between visual reaction time and duration of hours of playing games.
Conclusion:Thus, this study concludes that video game playing improves performance in tasks involving hand-eye coordination and quick reflexes.
Background: The nasal cycle is an ultradian rhythm with a periodicity of about 2-8 hours, during which the right and left nares are alternately patent. Pranayama, the yogic system of breathing, is based on the belief that right nostril dominance corresponds to sympathetic arousal and left nostril breathing corresponds to parasympathetic arousal. Alternate nostril breathing exercises have been reported to influence cardio-respiratory and autonomic functions. There is a paucity of literature on the effect of breathing through right or left nostril on cardiovascular and autonomic functions. Also the immediate effects of such a maneuver have not been studied. Hence the present study was aimed at analyzing the R-R interval related to left and right nostril breathing and to get a better understanding about the immediate effects of such breathing maneuver on autonomic function. Materials & methods: 60 healthy adult males between 20-40 years were selected for the study. They were briefed about the breathing maneuver. Subjects were asked to relax completely in supine position for 10 minutes and they were instructed to do right and left nostril breathing for 20 minutes. ECG recording was done during last 5 minutes of different nostril breathing. R-R interval was obtained directly from the computerized ECG system. Students paired t test was done to analyze the statistical significance by using SPSS 17. Results: The mean (+/-SD) R-R interval with left nostril breathing was 851.77+/-14.45 ms, with right nostril breathing was 826.83 +/-16.91 ms and both nostril breathing was 828.29+/-133.98 ms. The mean R-R interval between right and left nostril breathing was significantly different (p=0.009). Conclusion: Parasympathetic activity is increased with left nostril breathing than right and both nostril breathing.
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