Nostril dominance at rest associated with performance of a left hemisphere-specific cancellation task

BACKGROUND: An association has been reported between the dominant nostril through which we breathe and the cerebral hemisphere found to be active. AIMS: To understand the association between the nostril dominant at rest and the performance in a cancellation task using verbal information–a left hemisphere task. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two hundred eighty-nine normal, healthy volunteers attending a one week nonresidential yoga camp were assessed in a single 30 minute period. Nostril dominance was assessed using a standard method. After this, participants were given the letter cancellation task and nostril dominance was again checked. For each participant, the numbers of letters that had been left out and wrongly cancelled as well as total errors were assessed. The Mann-Whitney u test and Chi-Square test were used to assess whether there was a significant difference in cancellation task performance between right and left nostril-dominant persons. RESULTS: There was no statistically significant difference between right and left nostril-dominant participants. CONCLUSIONS: The present results do not support previous findings of contralateral cerebral hemisphere improvement with breathing through a specific nostril.