Abstract
The electroencephalography (EEG) microstate has recently emerged as a new whole-brain mapping tool for studying the temporal dynamics of the human brain. Meanwhile, the neuromodulation effect of external stimulation on the human brain is of increasing interest to neuroscientists. Acupuncture, which originated in ancient China, is recognized as an external neuromodulation method with therapeutic effects. Effective acupuncture could elicit the deqi effect, which is a combination of multiple sensations. However, whether the EEG microstate could be used to reveal the neuromodulation effect of acupuncture with deqi remains largely unclear. In this study, multichannel EEG data were recorded from 16 healthy subjects during acupuncture manipulation, as well as during pre- and post-manipulation tactile controls and pre- and post-acupuncture rest controls. As the basic acupuncture unit for regulating the central nervous system, the Hegu acupoint was used in this study, and each subject’s acupuncture deqi behavior scores were collected. To reveal the neuroimaging evidence of acupuncture with deqi, EEG microstate analysis was conducted to obtain the microstate maps and microstate parameters for different conditions. Furthermore, Pearson’s correlation was analyzed to investigate the correlation relationship between microstate parameters and deqi behavioral scores. Results showed that: (1) compared with tactile controls, acupuncture manipulation caused significantly increased deqi behavioral scores. (2) Acupuncture manipulation significantly increased the duration, occurrence, and contribution parameters of microstate C, whereas it decreased those parameters of microstate D. (3) Microstate C’s duration parameter showed a significantly positive correlation with acupuncture deqi behavior scores. (4) Acupuncture manipulation significantly increased the transition probabilities with microstate C as node, whereas it reduced the transition probabilities with microstate D as node. (5) Microstate B→C’s transition probability also showed a significantly positive correlation with acupuncture deqi behavior scores. Taken together, the temporal dynamic feature of EEG microstate could be used as objective neuroimaging evidence to reveal the neuromodulation effect of acupuncture with deqi.
Highlights
The dynamics and functions of the nervous system could be efficiently modulated by external stimuli, which has received increasing attention from neuroscientists (Marder, 2012)
The post-acupuncture rest control maps showed the overall highest concordance with the pre-acupuncture rest control’s microstate maps. These phenomena showed that microstate maps were first modulated by acupuncture manipulation and recovered back to the baseline resting state. All these results indicated that the EEG microstate maps could be a promising objective marker to reveal the acupuncture effects
No significant correlation was found for any other conditions. These results further indicated that B→C transition probability parameters could be an effective marker to reflect subjects’ acupuncture deqi behavior scores during acupuncture manipulation
Summary
The dynamics and functions of the nervous system could be efficiently modulated by external stimuli, which has received increasing attention from neuroscientists (Marder, 2012). Acupuncture, as an external stimulation to the human nerve system, has been applied to manage various clinical diseases, such as neuropathic pains (Miranda et al, 2015), epilepsy (Nicolaou and Georgiou, 2012), Alzheimer’s disease (Liang et al, 2014), and Parkinson’s disease (Aroxa et al, 2017), which has received increasing attention by the public. The World Health Organization announced that more than 43 diseases could be treated with acupuncture (Hsu et al, 2011), there is a lack of objective neuroimaging evidence for revealing the neuromodulation effect of acupuncture. Acupuncture could stimulate the afferent nerve and regulate the central nervous system, in which subjects experience the sensation of acupuncture with deqi (Takahashi, 2011). There lacks a reliable objective neuroimaging evidence to reveal the neuromodulation effects of acupuncture with deqi
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