[jvanderbot]

It's not a total wash:

"The studies reviewed also implicate the role of yoga in functioning of the dlPFC and the amygdala (see Fig. 4). Gothe et al. [24] found that yoga practitioners demonstrated decreased dlPFC activation during the encoding phase of a working memory task in comparison to the controls. Froelinger et al. [30] also found yoga practitioners to be less reactive in the right dlPFC when viewing the negatively valanced images on the affective Stroop task. Task-relevant targets activate the dlPFC, whereas emotional distractors activate the amygdala [49]. Exerting cognitive control over emotional processes leads to increased activation in the dlPFC, with corresponding reciprocal deactivation in the amygdala [50, 51]. The studies suggest that when emotional experience occurred within the context of a demanding task situation, yoga practitioners appeared to resolve emotional interference via recruitment of regions of the cortex that subserve cognitive control. Plausibly, these findings may indicate that yoga practitioners selectively recruit neurocognitive resources to disengage from negative emotional information processing and engage the cognitive demands presented by working memory and inhibitory control tasks demonstrating overall neurocognitive resource efficiency." [discussion, ¶5]

To a literate outsider, this does not seem like hand-wavey bullshit and seems to establish the signal->source->implication chain you request. This just happened to be where I was in the article when I read your comment.

[appleflaxen]

none of these things are directly important. it's hard to recognize, because they sound very advanced and scientific, but it amounts to how bright a spot is on a brain scan. why is brightness there intrinsically good? well... it's not. I know the authors then project the actual measurements into some kind of hand wavy interpretation about how that affects the individual, but it's just hand waving.

no medication would ever be approved by the FDA using these outcomes, nor should they be (unless the community first establishes that it's a biomaker of some kind).

[jvanderbot]

Fair enough. But isnt their statement (and citation) that exerting emotional control directly correlates with measured increases in a particular region ... exactly what we want to see? If all people exerting emotional control exhibit red ears, and yoga practcioners have less red ears when under stressful focused tasks, it does seem reasonable that less emotional control is required. That logic is sound, right?