Liang Peipeng, Wang Zhiqun, Qian Tianyi, Li Kuncheng
Department of Radiology, Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing, China Beijing Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Brain Informatics, Beijing, China.
Department of Radiology, Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
Am J Alzheimers Dis Other Demen. 2014 Dec;29(8):739-48. doi: 10.1177/1533317514536600. Epub 2014 Jun 6.
The acupuncture has been used in the therapy of Alzheimer disease (AD), however, its neural underpins are still unclear. The aim of this study is to examine the acupuncture effect on the default mode network (DMN) in AD by using resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS-fMRI).
Twenty-eight subjects (14 AD and 14 normal controls (NC)) participated in this study. RS-fMRI data were acquired before and after acupuncture, while during the acupuncture, the procession of acupuncture stimulation on the acupoints of Tai chong (Liv3) and Hegu (LI4) lasted for 3 minutes.
Region of interest analysis showed that the impaired DMN connectivity in AD (identified by comparing the pre-acupuncture RS-fMRI of AD and NC), specifically the left cingulate gyrus (CG) and right inferior parietal lobule (IPL), were significantly changed for the better. The whole-brain exploratory analysis further demonstrated these results and found some new regions respond to the acupuncture effect on AD, with a cluster in the left posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), the right middle temporal gyrus (MTG) together with right IPL showed increased within-DMN connectivity; and the bilateral CG and left PCu showed decreased within-DMN connectivity. Moreover, the acupuncture effect on the right MTG was significantly correlated with disease severity as measured by Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scores.
It was found that the acupuncture stimulation could modulate the DMN activity in AD. The current findings suggest that the acupuncture treatment on the relative earlier AD patients might have a better therapy effect.
针灸已被用于阿尔茨海默病（AD）的治疗，但其神经学基础仍不清楚。本研究旨在通过静息态功能磁共振成像（RS-fMRI）研究针灸对AD患者默认模式网络（DMN）的影响。
28名受试者（14名AD患者和14名正常对照（NC））参与了本研究。在针灸前后采集RS-fMRI数据，针灸过程中，对太冲（Liv3）和合谷（LI4）穴位的针刺刺激持续3分钟。
感兴趣区分析显示，AD患者受损的DMN连接性（通过比较AD患者和NC的针灸前RS-fMRI确定），特别是左侧扣带回（CG）和右侧顶下小叶（IPL），有显著改善。全脑探索性分析进一步证实了这些结果，并发现了一些对针灸治疗AD有反应的新区域，左侧后扣带回皮质（PCC）、右侧颞中回（MTG）以及右侧IPL的一个簇显示DMN内连接性增加；双侧CG和左侧楔前叶（PCu）显示DMN内连接性降低。此外，针灸对右侧MTG的影响与简易精神状态检查（MMSE）和蒙特利尔认知评估（MoCA）评分所衡量的疾病严重程度显著相关。
发现针灸刺激可调节AD患者的DMN活动。目前的研究结果表明，对相对早期的AD患者进行针灸治疗可能具有更好的治疗效果。
