Abstract
Increasing neuroimaging researches in stroke rehabilitation had revealed the neural mechanisms of rehabilitation therapy. However, little was known about the neural mechanisms of acupuncture therapy in subcortical stroke patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the changes of functional connectivity (FC) between the bilateral primary motor cortices (M1s) after acupuncture intervention in right subcortical stroke patients. Twenty right-hemispheric subcortical stroke patients and 20 healthy subjects were recruited to undergo one functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning. The scanning consisted of resting-state fMRI before and after needling at Yanglinquan (GB34), and task-evoked fMRI. The most significant active point during the left passive thumb-to-index task was chosen as the seed point. The seed-based FC analysis of the bilateral M1s was performed. Stroke patients revealed decreased FC between the bilateral M1s compared with healthy subjects, and the decreased FC was significantly enhanced after acupuncture at GB34. Acupuncture could increase the intrinsically decreased FC between the bilateral M1s which provided further insight into the neural mechanisms of acupuncture for motor function recovery in stroke patients.
Highlights
Stroke has been ranked as the leading cause of motor disability among adults across the world, which had brought heavy burden to the family and the society (Lozano et al, 2012)
Abundant cross-sectional and longitudinal neuroimaging studies in subcortical stroke patients had confirmed that functional reorganization in the ipsilesional M1 existed (Pelicioni et al, 2016), and the resting-state functional connectivity between the bilateral M1s initially decreased and it gradually increased during motor function recovery (Wang et al, 2010; Rehme et al, 2011; Zhang J. et al, 2014)
The results showed that all participants were righthemispheric subcortical stroke patients with National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NHISS) from 3 to 14, Fugl-Meyer Assessment-upper limbs (FMA-U; mean value, 33.20 ± 18.71) and Fugl-Meyer Assessmentlower limbs (FMA-L; mean value, 23.30 ± 7.94)
Summary
Stroke has been ranked as the leading cause of motor disability among adults across the world, which had brought heavy burden to the family and the society (Lozano et al, 2012). Motor impairments of limbs gravely affect their ability to perform activities of daily living (ADL), as well as social participation. The ability to live independently after stroke depends largely on the recovery of motor function. A large number of studies had demonstrated that adequate rehabilitation therapies could promote motor function recovery (Klamroth-Marganska et al, 2014; Liu et al, 2014; Saunders et al, 2014). Abundant cross-sectional and longitudinal neuroimaging studies in subcortical stroke patients had confirmed that functional reorganization in the ipsilesional M1 existed (Pelicioni et al, 2016), and the resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) between the bilateral M1s initially decreased and it gradually increased during motor function recovery (Wang et al, 2010; Rehme et al, 2011; Zhang J. et al, 2014)
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