title: The effects of CCRC on cognition and brain activity in aMCI patients: a pilot placebo controlled BOLD fMRI study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate effects and functional mechanism of compound Congrongyizhi Capsule (CCRC), a Chinese medicine, on cognitive functions against amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) patients with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) based on n-back task.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty-one aMCI participants from hospital and local communities in Beijing and randomly divided into treatment (16 patients with CCRC capsule treatment), placebo (12 patients with placebo capsules) and control group (13 patients with no treatment). The duration of intervention lasted for 3 months. Neuropsychological tests and fMRI were applied to assess cognitive ability and brain activation changes after three months treatment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Drug group (n=16) presented increased significance in the MMSE (P=0.008) and digit span (P<0.001) tests, while other scores of neuropsychological tests showed no statistical significance. fMRI results showed an increased brain negative activation in drug group during performing the n-back working-memory task in posterior cingulate (PCC), inferior frontal gyrus and lingual gyrus regions after 3 months; placebo and control group did not show the same effect. Meanwhile, there were negative correlations between left PCC activation levels and changed values of MMSE and digit span separately since increased negative activation was associated with better performance on the scores of MMSE and Digit Span tests.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  CCRC can increase negative activation degree of PCC under performing working memory tasks while this modulation are associated with better performance on the MMSE and Digit Span.
authors.forename: Junying
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Zijing
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Shijun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Yaojing
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Kewei
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yongyan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Rongjuan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekouwai St, Beijing 100875, P. R. China. zhang_rzs@bnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Zhanjun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000187:drug effects; D003071:Cognition / Q000187:drug effects*; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology*; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D057913:Joint Capsule Release; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010865:Pilot Projects
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen