Research On Correlation Of Brain Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Data

Acupuncture that originated in ancient China is the valuable fortune of Chinese people, and plays an important role in traditional Chinese medicine. However, acupuncture therapy mechanism has not been clarified, which stunts the development and application of acupuncture in the world. Till now, acupuncture still has been in a position as alternative or complementary therapeutic intervention across the US and other western countries. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is so far the most widely-used non-invasive detection technology in vivo brain. Therefore, acupuncture mechanism study with functional magnetic resonance imaging technology is significant to the development of acupuncture.Steady connectivity correlation analysis methods were deeply studied in this thesis in order to find the relationship between acupoint and brain. Then, a dynamic correlation analysis method was pointed out according to the data characteristic. Those two kinds of methods were synthetically applied into the research of acupuncture effect. The results provided new evidence for the existence of last effect of acupuncture.The contributions obtained in this thesis can be summarized in the following 3 aspects:1. The steady correlation analysis methods in brain fMRI field were studied. In addition, the validity of the methods based on model or data was tested and verified in task or rest fMRI correlation studies. The general linear model (GLM) in SPM5 was used to study the changes of brain activity subjected to the classic tessellated visual stimulation. As a result, bilateral visual cortexes were activated which coincided with the anatomic results. Regional homogeneity (ReHo) and the method based on Pearson correlation coefficient were both used to study the brain functional abnormity of AIDS patients under resting state. The result that mild dysgnosia might exist in early AIDS patients was obtained, which coincided with the study of pathergasia.2. In order to study the brain functional changes in the transition between task stimulating state and resting state, a dynamic correlation analysis method based on the statistical characteristic of multi-scale correlation coefficient was pointed out. The method was evaluated using emulated experiments based on the data of different signal-to-noise ratios and different phases. The results illustrated that the method could clearly reflect the dynamic changes of both the phase relationship and correlation between two time series, and there was very good robustness about the method.3. Aiming at the question whether there was post effect of acupuncture, the steady correlation analysis method and dynamic correlation analysis method were synthetically applied to acupuncture fMRI study. ReHo was used for the study of resting state fMRI after acupuncture at taichong (Liv 3) acupoint and a near sham point. The dynamic correlation analysis method based on the statistical characteristic of multi-scale correlation coefficient was used for the whole fMRI data analysis of acupuncture. Both the results indicated that the activations of those brain areas lead by acupuncture at an acupoint were correlated with the acupoint. These neuro activities still existed after pulling out the needle. The conclusion discussed above provided a new evidence for the existence of last effect of acupuncture.