Immediate neural effects of acupuncture manipulation time for stroke with motor dysfunction: a fMRI pilot study

Yihao Zhou; Anhong Dai; Sifeng Feng; Tao Zhu; Meifang Liu; Jing Shi; Dongyan Wang

doi:10.3389/fnins.2023.1297149

Immediate neural effects of acupuncture manipulation time for stroke with motor dysfunction: a fMRI pilot study

Front Neurosci. 2024 Jan 5:17:1297149. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1297149. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yihao Zhou^#^{1

2}, Anhong Dai^#³, Sifeng Feng^#², Tao Zhu², Meifang Liu², Jing Shi², Dongyan Wang⁴

Affiliations

¹ Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, China.
² The First Affiliated Hospital of Yunnan University of Chinese Medicine, Yunnan Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Kunming, China.
³ Yan'an Hospital Affiliated to Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China.
⁴ Second Affiliated Hospital, Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Introduction: Acupuncture is widely utilized as a beneficial intervention for the treatment of motor dysfunction after stroke, and its effectiveness depends on the stimulation dose. Manipulation time is an important factor affecting the dose. This trial aimed use fMRI to explore the immediate neural effects in stroke patients with motor dysfunction by different acupuncture manipulation times, to reveal the neural mechanism of acupuncture manipulation.

Methods: Thirty participants were divided into three groups according to different acupuncture times. Each group received the same acupoint prescription, although the continuous manipulation time of each acupoint in three groups was 1-min, 2-min, and 3-min, respectively. The NIHSS, FMA and fMRI-BOLD in each participant we obtained before and after acupuncture manipulation. Then, we used the regional homogeneity (ReHo) algorithm to analyze the changes of brain function and to compare the neural effects at different acupuncture manipulation times.

Results: There were no significant differences in NIHSS and FMA scores between and within groups. Longitudinal analysis of ReHo values indicated that the right inferior frontal gyrus was activated in the 1-min group, the right insula in the 2-min group, and the right inferior temporal gyrus in the 3-min group. Compared with the 1-min group, the 2-min group showed the ReHo values of the right precentral gyrus was decreased, and the 3-min group showed the left cerebellum posterior lobe was increased, the right posterior cingulate gyrus and the right anterior cingulate gyrus were decreased. Compared with the 2-min group, the 3-min group showed the ReHo values of the right cerebellum anterior lobe was increased.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that acupuncture at different manipulation times caused different changes of the neural effects in stroke patients, and the volume of activated voxel clusters is positively correlated with the manipulation time. Longer acupuncture manipulation could drive SMN and DMN in stroke patients, which may be the potential neurological mechanism of acupuncture manipulation affecting the recovery of motor dysfunction.

Keywords: acupuncture manipulation time; motor dysfunction; neural effects; pilot study; regional homogeneity; stroke.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81760893).