Heterogeneous Acupuncture Effects of Taixi (KI3) on Functional Connectivity in Healthy Youth and Elder: A Functional MRI Study Using Regional Homogeneity and Large-Scale Functional Connectivity Analysis.

Heterogeneous neurological responses of acupuncture between different groups have been proposed by previous studies but rarely studied. The study described here was designed to explore the divergence of acupuncture at Taixi (KI3) on spontaneous activity of brain regions and functional connectivity (FC) between healthy youth and elder with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). 20 healthy young volunteers and 20 healthy elders underwent 10-minute-resting-state fMRI before acupuncture, and then acupuncture at Taixi (KI3) for 3 minutes; after withdrawing the needles, volunteers underwent a second fMRI scan for 10 minutes. Regional homogeneity (ReHo) and large-scale FC analysis using Power 264 atlas were utilized to analyze the changes of brain spontaneous activity. Compared with the resting state, the decreased ReHo after acupuncture at KI3 in both groups were concentrated in the left postcentral, right paracentral lobule, and right SMA. Moreover, the subjects in the HY group showed declined ReHo in brain regions involving the right lingual and precentral. However, those subjects in the HE group presented decreased ReHo in the right postcentral and precentral, left supramarginal gyrus and SMA, and both cingulum middle after needling in KI3. Compared with the resting state, the HY group in the postneedling state showed lower mean intranetwork FC in sensory/somatomotor and subcortical network. And the internetwork FC between sensory/somatomotor and dorsal attention had significantly decreased after acupuncture. Furthermore, the internetwork FC between subcortical and dorsal attention and between subcortical and cerebellar showed the most obvious elevations after needling in the HY group. In the elder group, both FCs of internetwork and intranetwork primarily involving sensory/somatomotor, cingulo-opercular, and dorsal attention were declined after acupuncture. These results indicated that acupuncture at KI3 had heterogeneous acupuncture effects in different age groups. Our study led to converging evidence supporting the acupuncture effect segregation of different condition subjects and supporting evidence for prevention and treatment with acupuncture in the future.

Brain structural connectome in relation to PRRT2 mutations in paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia.

This study explored the topological characteristics of brain white matter structural networks in patients with Paroxysmal Kinesigenic Dyskinesia (PKD), and the potential influence of the brain network stability gene PRRT2 on the structural connectome in PKD. Thirty-five PKD patients with PRRT2 mutations (PKD-M), 43 PKD patients without PRRT2 mutations (PKD-N), and 40 demographically-matched healthy control (HC) subjects underwent diffusion tensor imaging. Graph theory and network-based statistic (NBS) approaches were performed; the topological properties of the white matter structural connectome were compared across the groups, and their relationships with the clinical variables were assessed. Both disease groups PKD-M and PKD-N showed lower local efficiency (implying decreased segregation ability) compared to the HC group; PKD-M had longer characteristic path length and lower global efficiency (implying decreased integration ability) compared to PKD-N and HC, independently of the potential effects of medication. Both PKD-M and PKD-N had decreased nodal characteristics in the left thalamus and left inferior frontal gyrus, the alterations being more pronounced in PKD-M patients, who also showed abnormalities in the left fusiform and bilateral middle temporal gyrus. In the connectivity characteristics assessed by NBS, the alterations were more pronounced in the PKD-M group versus HC than in PKD-N versus HC. As well as the white matter alterations in the basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical circuit related to PKD with or without PRRT2 mutations, findings in the PKD-M group of weaker small-worldness and more pronounced regional disturbance show the adverse effects of PRRT2 gene mutations on brain structural connectome.