Key Laboratory of Complex Systems and Intelligence Science, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Magn Reson Imaging. 2011 Sep;29(7):958-65. doi: 10.1016/j.mri.2011.04.009. Epub 2011 May 25.
Previous neuroimaging studies have primarily focused on the neural activities involving the acute effects of acupuncture. Considering that acupuncture can induce long-lasting effects, several researchers have begun to pay attention to the sustained effects of acupuncture on the resting brain. Most of these researchers adopted functional connectivity analysis based on one or a few preselected brain regions and demonstrated various function-guided brain networks underlying the specific effect of acupuncture. Few have investigated how these brain networks interacted at the whole-brain level. In this study, we sought to investigate the functional correlations throughout the entire brain following acupuncture at acupoint ST36 (ACUP) in comparison with acupuncture at nearby nonacupoint (SHAM). We divided the whole brain into 90 regions and constructed functional brain network for each condition. Then we examined the network hubs and identified statistically significant differences in functional correlations between the two conditions. Following ACUP, but not SHAM, the limbic/paralimbic regions such as the amygdala, hippocampus and anterior cingulate gyrus emerged as network hubs. For direct comparisons, increased correlations for ACUP compared to SHAM were primarily related with the limbic/paralimbic and subcortical regions such as the insula, amygdala, anterior cingulate gyrus, and thalamus, whereas decreased correlations were mainly related with the sensory and frontal cortex. The heterogeneous modulation patterns between the two conditions may relate to the functional specific modulatory effects of acupuncture. The preliminary findings may help us to better understand the long-lasting effects of acupuncture on the entire resting brain, as well as the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying acupuncture.
先前的神经影像学研究主要集中在针灸急性效应所涉及的神经活动。鉴于针灸可以产生持久的效果，一些研究人员开始关注针灸对静息大脑的持续影响。这些研究人员大多采用基于一个或几个预先选定的脑区的功能连接分析，证明了针灸特定效应背后的各种以功能为导向的脑网络。很少有研究调查这些脑网络在全脑水平上是如何相互作用的。在这项研究中，我们试图在针刺 ST36 穴位（ACUP）与针刺附近非穴位（SHAM）后，从整个大脑的角度来探讨功能相关性。我们将整个大脑分为 90 个区域，并为每个条件构建功能脑网络。然后，我们检查了网络枢纽，并确定了两种条件下功能相关性的统计学显著差异。针刺后，边缘/旁边缘区域（如杏仁核、海马和前扣带回）而非针刺后，这些区域成为网络枢纽。进行直接比较，与针刺相比，针刺的相关性增加主要与边缘/旁边缘和皮质下区域（如岛叶、杏仁核、前扣带回和丘脑）有关，而相关性降低主要与感觉和额叶皮质有关。两种条件之间的异质调制模式可能与针灸的功能特异性调节作用有关。初步发现可能有助于我们更好地理解针灸对整个静息大脑的持久影响，以及针灸的神经生理机制。
