Abstract
Acupuncture is increasingly being used as an alternative treatment for patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). We aimed to evaluate the effects of acupuncture on gait-related brain function in patients with PD using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Twenty-four patients with PD were randomly assigned to intervention (acupuncture twice a week for 4 weeks) or control (non-treatment) groups. fNIRS experiments applying a block design were performed at baseline (0 weeks) and 4- and 8-week follow-up and cortical activation and connectivity were evaluated. After acupuncture treatment, oxy-hemoglobin (HbO) levels in the intervention group were significantly increased in the primary motor cortex (M1), supplementary motor area (SMA), and prefrontal cortex (PFC). Furthermore, following acupuncture treatment in the intervention group, the connectivities in the M1 and PFC regions increased. The results show that acupuncture may be a useful complementary treatment for gait disturbances in patients with PD, and fNIRS can be applicable to evaluate neural plasticity directly. The evaluation method in this paper can be used to assess the neural plasticity related to various rehabilitation techniques.
Highlights
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders
Since this study evaluates the effect of acupuncture on PD’s brain network, the analysis of connectivity was conducted based on the functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) signals
Discussion fNIRS network analysis was conducted to investigate the mechanism of acupuncture for gait function in patients with PD
Summary
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders. Clinical assessment and diagnosis of PD are based on patient symptoms, and the accuracy of the diagnosis is considered to be approximately 75–95% [1]. PD symptoms may vary depending on the patient, and the importance of early diagnosis and treatment of PD is increasing because of the possibility of developing other diseases such as dementia. Signs of PD can be separated into the motor and non-motor symptoms. Motor symptoms mainly include bradykinesia, muscle stiffness, resting tremor, and gait disturbances, and in particular, the prevalence of fractures due to gait disorders is noted to be high [2]. The problems associated with the gait worsen as the disease progresses, which is a significant disease burden that significantly affects the independence and quality of life [3,4]
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