Abstract
Background. Acupuncture has been used to treat amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) for many years in China. However, the long-term effects of continuous acupuncture treatment remained unclear. Objective. We aimed to explore the long-term effects of continuous acupuncture treatment on hippocampal functional connectivity (FC) in aMCI. Methods. Fifty healthy control (HC) participants and 28 aMCI patients were recruited for resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at baseline. The 28 aMCI patients were then divided into the aMCI acupuncture group, which received acupuncture treatment for 6 months, and the aMCI control group, which received no intervention. All aMCI patients completed the second resting-state fMRI scanning after 6 months of acupuncture treatment. Analysis based on the region of interest and two-way analysis of covariance were both used to explore the long-term effects of acupuncture on cognition change and hippocampal FC in aMCI. Results. Compared to HC, aMCI showed decreased right hippocampal FC with the right inferior/middle temporal gyrus (ITG/MTG), left amygdala, and the right fusiform and increased FC with bilateral caudates at baseline. After acupuncture treatment, the right hippocampal FC with right ITG/MTG enhanced significantly in the aMCI acupuncture group, but continued to decrease in the aMCI control group. Whole brain FC analysis showed enhanced right hippocampal FC with the right ITG and the left MTG in the aMCI acupuncture group relative to the aMCI control group. Furthermore, FC strength of the right hippocampus with right ITG at baseline was negatively correlated with the changes in memory scores of aMCI acupuncture patients. Conclusion. Acupuncture treatment could alleviate the progression of cognitive decline and could enhance hippocampal FC with ITG and MTG in aMCI that may be associated with resilience to resistant against neurodegeneration. The findings provided a better understanding of the long-term effects of acupuncture treatment and confirmed the therapeutic role of acupuncture in aMCI.
Highlights
Amnestic mild cognitive impairment is considered as the prodromal stage of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) [1]
There were no significant differences in age, gender, and years of education between the amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and healthy control (HC) groups
These results showed that after acupuncture, the abnormal right HP-functional connectivity (FC) to the right inferior temporal gyrus (ITG) (Figure 3(b)) and the left MTG (Figure 3(c)) enhanced in the aMCI acupuncture group, while those of the aMCI control group continued to decline, verifying our hypothesis that abnormal HP-FC in the aMCI group would show a recovery after acupuncture therapy
Summary
Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) is considered as the prodromal stage of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) [1]. Feng et al reported that acupuncture enhanced functional correlations in memory-related brain regions, including the hippocampus (HP), thalamus, and fusiform gyrus [9] in MCI patients. We aimed to explore the long-term effects of continuous acupuncture treatment on hippocampal functional connectivity (FC) in aMCI. Analysis based on the region of interest and two-way analysis of covariance were both used to explore the long-term effects of acupuncture on cognition change and hippocampal FC in aMCI. The right hippocampal FC with right ITG/MTG enhanced significantly in the aMCI acupuncture group, but continued to decrease in the aMCI control group. Whole brain FC analysis showed enhanced right hippocampal FC with the right ITG and the left MTG in the aMCI acupuncture group relative to the aMCI control group. The findings provided a better understanding of the longterm effects of acupuncture treatment and confirmed the therapeutic role of acupuncture in aMCI
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