Jia Baohui, Liu Zhishun, Min Baoquan, Wang Zhenchang, Zhou Aihong, Li Yong, Qiao Haifa, Jia Jianping
Department of Acupuncture, Guang'anmen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100053, China ; Department of Neurology, Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing 100053, China ; Department of Biomedical Sciences, Florida State University College of Medicine, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA.
Department of Acupuncture, Guang'anmen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100053, China.
Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2015;2015:529675. doi: 10.1155/2015/529675. Epub 2015 May 3.
Accumulating neuroimaging studies in humans have shown that acupuncture can modulate a widely distributed brain network in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. Acupuncture at different acupoints could exert different modulatory effects on the brain network. However, whether acupuncture at real or sham acupoints can produce different effects on the brain network in MCI or AD patients remains unclear. Using resting-state fMRI, we reported that acupuncture at Taixi (KI3) induced amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) change of different brain regions in MCI patients from those shown in the healthy controls. In MCI patients, acupuncture at KI3 increased or decreased ALFF in the different regions from those activated by acupuncture in the healthy controls. Acupuncture at the sham acupoint in MCI patients activated the different brain regions from those in healthy controls. Therefore, we concluded that acupuncture displays more significant effect on neuronal activities of the above brain regions in MCI patients than that in healthy controls. Acupuncture at KI3 exhibits different effects on the neuronal activities of the brain regions from acupuncture at sham acupoint, although the difference is only shown at several regions due to the close distance between the above points.
越来越多针对人类的神经影像学研究表明，针灸可以调节轻度认知障碍（MCI）和阿尔茨海默病（AD）患者广泛分布的脑网络。在不同穴位进行针灸对脑网络可能产生不同的调节作用。然而，在MCI或AD患者中，针刺真穴或假穴对脑网络是否会产生不同影响仍不清楚。通过静息态功能磁共振成像，我们发现，太溪穴（KI3）针刺引起的MCI患者不同脑区低频振幅（ALFF）变化与健康对照者不同。在MCI患者中，针刺KI3引起的不同脑区ALFF变化与健康对照者针刺时激活的脑区不同。MCI患者针刺假穴时激活的脑区与健康对照者也不同。因此，我们得出结论，针灸对MCI患者上述脑区神经元活动的影响比对健康对照者更显著。针刺KI3对脑区神经元活动的影响与针刺假穴不同，尽管由于上述穴位距离较近，差异仅在几个脑区表现出来。
