| Purpose:This research use functional magnetic resonance(f MRI)technology to observe the impact of effective brain connection of needling healthy subjects' heart / pericardium meridian,to probe the differences between heart and pericardium about the brain network reflection and the information transmission among brain regions,to provide the imaging evidence for the study of "heart /pericardium meridian-brain" relationship and clinical use of the two meridians.Methods:We have 15 healthy subjects,and adopt the single blind random controlled trail.Each participant randomly successively received r-f MRI scanning of acupuncture on heart meridian and pericardium meridian.Heart meridian group adopted Jiquan(HT1),Shaohai(HT3),Lingdao(HT4),Shenmen(HT 7),pericardial meridian group adopted: Tianquan(2 PC2),Quze 3(PC 3),the Neiguan(PC 6),the Daling(7 PC).Each scanning included three sections functional image data collection,resting state before needling,acupuncture needling state and acupuncture extracted state.A week between two scans.The first step is extracting the region of interest(ROI)based on the analysis of the differences of heart /pericardium meridians' Regional Homogeneity(Re Ho).The second is doing the effective connection analysis between ROI,to get the result of heart /pericardium meridian's group-wise and state-wise effective connectionResults: 1.Re Ho's result of acupuncture heart/pericardial meridian and ROI extracting.Heart meridian group: Re Ho value rise in brain areas is on the left side of the frontal cortex,the right parietal lobe,left parietal lobe,back in the right side of the pillow,right frontal lobe,left angular gyrus,cingulate gyrus after;Re Ho lower areas of the brain to the left temporal extremely superior temporal gyrus,left frontal lobe.Pericardium meridian group: Re Ho value of central brain regions in the left temporal gyrus,frontal lobe,right parietal lobe,right after the central back;Re Ho lower areas of the brain to the right in the cerebellum posterior lobe,right temporal hui,right precuneus,right frontal lobe,right back,on the top of the left angular gyrus.Re Ho value difference between two groups: Brain regions of needling pericardium meridian whose Re Ho value was significantly higher than that of heart meridian as follows: left temporal pole,superior temporal gyrus,inferior frontal gyrus,opercular part,superior medial frontal gyrus, precuneus,postcentral gyrus,right superior frontal gyrus,right postcentral gyrus.Brain regions of needling pericardium meridian whose Re Ho value was significantly lower than that of heart: right parahippocampal gyrus,right frontal lobe,and right cerebellum.ROI choice: We chose respective three brain regions from needling heart/pericardium channel(whose Re Ho value changed significantly)that contained most voxels(Alphasim correction,p < 0.05,the cluster > 30),a total of six ROI.Heart meridian:(1)post cingulate gyrus(0,-46,25),(2)left middle frontal gyrus(-24,53,16);(3)left temporal pole superior temporal gyrus(-48,10,-21).Pericardium meridian:(4)bilateral medial frontal gyrus(BA10,60,33-3),(5)left precentral gyrus(-33,1,48),(6)left inferior temporal gyrus(-43-19,25).2.Effective connection result of acupuncture heart/pericardial meridian.Effective connection comparison between heart and pericardium meridian: before acupuncture,effective connections of the two groups are strong inhibitory connections from left inferior temporal gyrus to cingulate gyrus,bilateral medial frontal gyrus and ipsilateral precentral gyrus,and positive incentive connections left inferior temporal gyrus received from these brain regions,ipsilateral temporal pole superior temporal gyrus added.Needling state,heart meridian's effective connections are broader,information exchanging among ROIs is more complex,positive signals are more,information connections among post cingulate gyrus,medial frontal lobe,temporal pole are more closely.Acupuncture extracted state,pericardium meridian's brain's function is more active,effective connection intensity is bigger,brain regions have more interval communication.Effective connection comparison of different state within heart and pericardium groups: Needling heart meridian let brain effective connection change significantly,and this change is positive,it makes the information communication of brain is richer and closely,and this impact weakened after pulling needle,but still changed obviously before acupuncture.Acupuncture pericardium meridian increased negative connection among ROIs,and these negative connection has close link to post cingulate cortex,but after pulling needle this negative increasing reversed.Conclusion:1.Acupuncture heart /pericardium meridian both can make brain Re Ho value have a significant change,the activated brain regions are involved brain advanced neural functions,such as feeling,thinking,cognitive and emotional and intellectual activities.But there is a difference between two groups,acupuncture pericardium meridian response brain regions are more than heart group.Prompt that acupuncture pericardium in brain might incline to influence regions concerning sensory information processing,cognitive and thinking to performing advanced neural function.The heart meridian might be partial to influence regions about memory,feeling,attention,mood and psychological activities.2.The brain's ROI effective connection of three states of acupuncture heart /pericardium meridian is the dynamic changes,needling heart meridian's instant effect is most significantly,after pulling needle pericardium group still affect brain regions signal transmission,it may have continuation.It suggests that acupuncture heart meridian effects quickly,and acupuncture pericardium effects more sustainably.This dynamic changes of the signal transmission in brain may be one of the cerebral mechanism of acupuncture effect of needling heart/pericardium meridian.3.At acupuncture state,heart meridian ROIs' effective connection is more extensive,positive signals and activated brain regions are more than pericardium group,it suggests that heart meridian immediate effect is better than that of the pericardium in terms of cerebral signal interaction.At acupuncture-extracted state,intensity of pericardium meridian's effective connection is bigger,brain regions communicate more.It prompt that pericardium's effect is stronger after pulling needle acupuncture.The differences of effective connection between two groups and two states might be one of different cerebral mechanisms of effect of needling heart and pericardium meridian. |
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