As an ancient therapeutic technique in Traditional Chinese Medicine, acupuncture has been used increasingly in modern
society to treat a range of clinical conditions as an alternative and complementary therapy. However, acupoint
specificity, lying at the core of acupuncture, still faces many controversies. Considering previous neuroimaging studies
on acupuncture have mainly employed functional magnetic resonance imaging, which only measures the secondary
effect of neural activity on cerebral metabolism and hemodynamics, in the current study, we adopted an
electrophysiological measurement technique named magnetoencephalography (MEG) to measure the direct neural
activity. 28 healthy college students were recruited in this study. We filtered MEG data into 5 consecutive frequency
bands (delta, theta, alpha, beta and gamma band) and grouped 140 sensors into 10 main brain regions (left/right frontal,
central, temporal, parietal and occipital regions). Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) based spectral analysis approach
was further performed to explore the differential band-limited power change patterns of acupuncture at Stomach
Meridian 36 (ST36) using a nearby nonacupoint (NAP) as control condition. Significantly increased delta power and
decreased alpha as well as beta power in bilateral frontal ROIs were observed following stimulation at ST36. Compared
with ST36, decreased alpha power in left and right central, right parietal as well as right temporal ROIs were detected in
NAP group. Our research results may provide additional evidence for acupoint specificity.
KEYWORDS: Diffusion tensor imaging, Diffusion, Anisotropy, Magnetic resonance imaging, In vivo imaging, Brain, 3D image processing, Neuroimaging, Functional magnetic resonance imaging, Chromium
Diffusion tensor MR imaging (DTI) provides information on diffusion anisotropy in vivo, which can be exhibited
three-dimensional white matter tractography. Five healthy volunteers and five right-hand affected patients with early
subacute ischaemic infarction involving the posterior limb of the internal capsule or corona radiate were recruited in this
study. We used 3D white matter tractography to show the corticospinal tract in both volunteer group and stroke group.
Then we compared parameters of the corticospinal tract in patients with that in normal subjects and assessed the
relationships between the fiber number of the corticospinal tract in ipsilesional hemisphere and indicators of the patients'
rehabilitation using Pearson correlation analysis. The fractional anisotropy (FA) values and apparent diffusion coefficient
(ADC) values in the ipsilesional corticospinal tract may significantly reduce comparing with the volunteer group. In
addition, the stroke patient with less fiber number of the ipsilesional corticospinal tract may bear more possibilities of
better motor rehabilitation. The FA values, ADC values and fiber number of the corticospinal tract in the ipsilesional
hemisphere might be helpful to the prognosis and prediction of clinical treatment in stroke patients.
While the use of acupuncture as a complementary therapeutic method for treating MCI is popular in
certain parts of the world, the underlying mechanism is still elusive. In the current study, we adopted
multivariate Granger causality analysis (mGCA) to explore the causal interactions of brain networks
involving acupuncture in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients compared to healthy controls
(HC). The fMRI experiment was performed with two different paradigms: namely, deep acupuncture
(DA) and superficial acupuncture (SA) at acupoint KI3. Results demonstrated that deep acupuncture
could modulate the abnormal regions in MCI group. These regions are implicated in memory
encoding and retrieving. This may relate to the purported therapeutically beneficial effects of
acupuncture for the treatment of MCI. However, the most significant causal interactions were found
in the sensorimotor regions in HC group. This may because acupuncture has a greater modulatory
effect on patients with a pathological imbalance. This paper provides the preliminary
neurophysiological evidence for the potential efficacy effect of acupuncture on MCI.
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