The Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering, Ministry of Education, Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China.
Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2013;2013:304804. doi: 10.1155/2013/304804. Epub 2013 Jul 11.
As an intermediate state between normal aging and dementia, mild cognitive impairment (MCI) became a hot topic and early treatments can improve disease prognosis. Acupuncture is shown to have possible effect in improving its cognitive defect. However, the underlying neural mechanism of acupuncture and relations between De Qi and different needling depths are still elusive. The present study aimed to explore how acupuncture can exert effect on the reorganization of MCI and to what extent needling depths, associating with De Qi sensations, can influence the acupuncture effects for MCI treatment. Our results presented that MCI patients exhibited losses of small-world attributes indicated by longer characteristic path lengths and larger clustering coefficients, compared with healthy controls. In addition, acupuncture with deep needling can induce much stronger and a wide range of De Qi sensations both in intensity and prevalence. Acupuncture with deep needling showed modulatory effect to compensate the losses of small-world attributes existed in MCI patients while acupuncture with superficial needling did not. Furthermore, acupuncture with deep needling enhanced the nodal centrality primarily in the abnormal regions of MCI including the hippocampus, postcentral cortex as well as anterior cingulate cortex. This study provides evidence to understand neural mechanism underlying acupuncture and the key role of De Qi for MCI treatment.
介于正常衰老和痴呆之间的轻度认知障碍（MCI）成为一个热点，早期治疗可以改善疾病预后。针灸在改善认知缺陷方面显示出可能的效果。然而，针灸的潜在神经机制以及气至与不同针刺深度之间的关系仍不清楚。本研究旨在探讨针灸如何对 MCI 的重组发挥作用，以及针刺深度与气至感觉如何影响 MCI 治疗的针刺效果。我们的研究结果表明，与健康对照组相比，MCI 患者表现出小世界属性的丧失，表现为特征路径长度较长和聚类系数较大。此外，深刺针法可以引起更强和更广泛的得气感觉，无论是在强度还是流行度上。深刺针法显示出调节作用，可以补偿 MCI 患者存在的小世界属性的丧失，而浅刺针法则没有。此外，深刺针法增强了节点中心性，主要集中在 MCI 的异常区域，包括海马、中央后皮质和前扣带皮质。这项研究为理解针灸的神经机制以及气至对 MCI 治疗的关键作用提供了证据。
