Abstract
PurposeTo investigate the different responses to acupuncture in MCI patients and age-matched healthy subjects reflected by the Regional Homogeneity (ReHo) indices.MethodsThe experiment was performed at the acupoint KI3 in 12 MCI patients and 12 healthy controls, respectively. A novel non-repeated event-related (NRER) fMRI design paradigm was applied to separately detect neural activities related to different stages of acupuncture (pre-acupuncture resting state, needling manipulation and post-acupuncture resting state). ReHo values were calculated for MCI patients and healthy controls in pre- and post-acupuncture resting state. Then, a two-way ANCOVA with repeated measures with post-hoc two sample t-tests was performed to explore the different responses to acupuncture in the two groups.ResultsThe ANCOVA revealed a significant main effect of group, but no significant main effect of acupuncture and interactions between group and acupuncture. During the pre-acupuncture resting state, ReHo values increased in the precentral gyrus (PCG), superior frontal gyrus (SFG), and insula (INS) and decreased mainly in middle temporal gyrus (MTG), parahippocampal (PHIP) and cingulate cortex in MCI patients compared with healthy controls. Furthermore, we found that the regions including precuneus (PCUN), and cingulate cortex showed increased ReHo values for MCI patients following acupuncture. For healthy controls, the medial frontal gyrus, PCG, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and INS showed enhanced ReHo values following acupuncture. During the post-acupuncture resting state, MCI patients showed increased ReHo values mainly in the MTG, superior parietal lobule (SPL), middle frontal gyrus (MFG), supramarginal (SMG), and PCG, and decreased ReHo values mainly in the frontal regions, PHIP, and posterior cingulated cortex (PCC) compared to healthy controls.ConclusionThough we found some ReHo changes between MCI patients and healthy controls, the two-way ANCOVA results showed no significant effects after multiple corrections. Further study is needed to reveal the real acupuncture effects on MCI patients.
Highlights
Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common form of dementia, is characterized by significant impairments in multiple cognitive domains including memory, attention, reasoning, language and executive-functions
The results suggested that the brain spontaneous activity differs between mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients and healthy controls during resting state and post acupuncture resting state
We found the Regional Homogeneity (ReHo) values significantly increased in the precentral gyrus (PCG), superior frontal gyrus (SFG), cuneus and INS in MCI patients compared with healthy controls
Summary
Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common form of dementia, is characterized by significant impairments in multiple cognitive domains including memory, attention, reasoning, language and executive-functions. There is currently little effective diseasemodifying treatment, and many potential treatments being tested may have significant side-effects. As an intermediate state between normal aging and dementia, the most prominent feature of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is an isolated mild decline in memory, whereas other cognitive functions remain intact [2]. MCI patients would turn into AD at a high rate of approximately 10% to 15% per year [3]. MCI has become a hot topic of dementia researchers in recent years. The increased risk for the elderly that suffer from MCI to progress to AD makes it an appropriate condition for investigation
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