title: The Effects of Acupuncture at Real or Sham Acupoints on the Intrinsic Brain Activity in Mild Cognitive Impairment Patients.
abstract: Accumulating neuroimaging studies in humans have shown that acupuncture can modulate a widely distributed brain network in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. Acupuncture at different acupoints could exert different modulatory effects on the brain network. However, whether acupuncture at real or sham acupoints can produce different effects on the brain network in MCI or AD patients remains unclear. Using resting-state fMRI, we reported that acupuncture at Taixi (KI3) induced amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) change of different brain regions in MCI patients from those shown in the healthy controls. In MCI patients, acupuncture at KI3 increased or decreased ALFF in the different regions from those activated by acupuncture in the healthy controls. Acupuncture at the sham acupoint in MCI patients activated the different brain regions from those in healthy controls. Therefore, we concluded that acupuncture displays more significant effect on neuronal activities of the above brain regions in MCI patients than that in healthy controls. Acupuncture at KI3 exhibits different effects on the neuronal activities of the brain regions from acupuncture at sham acupoint, although the difference is only shown at several regions due to the close distance between the above points.
authors.affiliation: Department of Acupuncture, Guang'anmen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100053, China ; Department of Neurology, Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing 100053, China ; Department of Biomedical Sciences, Florida State University College of Medicine, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA.
authors.forename: Baohui
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.affiliation: Department of Acupuncture, Guang'anmen Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100053, China.
authors.forename: Zhishun
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-7901-4875
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing 100053, China.
authors.forename: Baoquan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Min
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Tongren Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing 100730, China.
authors.forename: Zhenchang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing 100053, China.
authors.forename: Aihong
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Tongren Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing 100730, China.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, Florida State University College of Medicine, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA ; Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100700, China.
authors.forename: Haifa
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-6456-7426
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Qiao
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing 100053, China.
authors.forename: Jianping
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jia