Functional magnetic resonance imaging has been widely used to investigate the effects of acupuncture on neural activity. However, most functional magnetic resonance imaging studies have focused on acute changes in bra...Functional magnetic resonance imaging has been widely used to investigate the effects of acupuncture on neural activity. However, most functional magnetic resonance imaging studies have focused on acute changes in brain activation induced by acupuncture. Thus, the time course of the therapeutic effects of acupuncture remains unclear. In this study, 32 patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment were randomly divided into two groups, where they received either Tiaoshen Yizhi acupuncture or sham acupoint acupuncture. The needles were either twirled at Tiaoshen Yizhi acupoints, including Sishencong(EX-HN1), Yintang(EX-HN3), Neiguan(PC6), Taixi(KI3), Fenglong(ST40), and Taichong(LR3), or at related sham acupoints at a depth of approximately 15 mm, an angle of ± 60°, and a rate of approximately 120 times per minute. Acupuncture was conducted for 4 consecutive weeks, five times per week, on weekdays. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging indicated that connections between cognition-related regions such as the insula, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, thalamus, inferior parietal lobule, and anterior cingulate cortex increased after acupuncture at Tiaoshen Yizhi acupoints. The insula, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and hippocampus acted as central brain hubs. Patients in the Tiaoshen Yizhi group exhibited improved cognitive performance after acupuncture. In the sham acupoint acupuncture group, connections between brain regions were dispersed, and we found no differences in cognitive function following the treatment. These results indicate that acupuncture at Tiaoshen Yizhi acupoints can regulate brain networks by increasing connectivity between cognition-related regions, thereby improving cognitive function in patients with mild cognitive impairment.展开更多
Aimed at the problem that the traditional suppressed fuzzy C-means clustering algorithms ignore the real needs of different objects, applying the same suppressed parameter for modifying membership degrees of all the o...Aimed at the problem that the traditional suppressed fuzzy C-means clustering algorithms ignore the real needs of different objects, applying the same suppressed parameter for modifying membership degrees of all the objects, a novel partition region-based suppressed fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm with better capacity of adaptability and robustness is proposed in this paper. The model based on the real needs of different objects is built, making it clear to decide whether to proceed with further determination; in addition, the external user-defined suppressed parameter is automatically selected according to the intrinsic structural characteristic of each dataset, making the proposed method become robust to the fluctuations in the incoming dataset and initial conditions. Experimental results show that the proposed method is more robust than its counterparts and overcomes the weakness of the original suppressed clustering algorithm in most cases.展开更多
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China,No.81173354a grant from the Science and Technology Plan Project of Guangdong Province of China,No.2013B021800099a grant from the Science and Technology Plan Project of Shenzhen City of China,No.JCYJ20150402152005642
文摘Functional magnetic resonance imaging has been widely used to investigate the effects of acupuncture on neural activity. However, most functional magnetic resonance imaging studies have focused on acute changes in brain activation induced by acupuncture. Thus, the time course of the therapeutic effects of acupuncture remains unclear. In this study, 32 patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment were randomly divided into two groups, where they received either Tiaoshen Yizhi acupuncture or sham acupoint acupuncture. The needles were either twirled at Tiaoshen Yizhi acupoints, including Sishencong(EX-HN1), Yintang(EX-HN3), Neiguan(PC6), Taixi(KI3), Fenglong(ST40), and Taichong(LR3), or at related sham acupoints at a depth of approximately 15 mm, an angle of ± 60°, and a rate of approximately 120 times per minute. Acupuncture was conducted for 4 consecutive weeks, five times per week, on weekdays. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging indicated that connections between cognition-related regions such as the insula, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, thalamus, inferior parietal lobule, and anterior cingulate cortex increased after acupuncture at Tiaoshen Yizhi acupoints. The insula, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and hippocampus acted as central brain hubs. Patients in the Tiaoshen Yizhi group exhibited improved cognitive performance after acupuncture. In the sham acupoint acupuncture group, connections between brain regions were dispersed, and we found no differences in cognitive function following the treatment. These results indicate that acupuncture at Tiaoshen Yizhi acupoints can regulate brain networks by increasing connectivity between cognition-related regions, thereby improving cognitive function in patients with mild cognitive impairment.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(61401363)the Science and Technology on Avionics Integration Laboratory and Aeronautical Science Foundation(20155153034)+1 种基金the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(3102016AXXX0053102015BJJGZ009)
文摘Aimed at the problem that the traditional suppressed fuzzy C-means clustering algorithms ignore the real needs of different objects, applying the same suppressed parameter for modifying membership degrees of all the objects, a novel partition region-based suppressed fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm with better capacity of adaptability and robustness is proposed in this paper. The model based on the real needs of different objects is built, making it clear to decide whether to proceed with further determination; in addition, the external user-defined suppressed parameter is automatically selected according to the intrinsic structural characteristic of each dataset, making the proposed method become robust to the fluctuations in the incoming dataset and initial conditions. Experimental results show that the proposed method is more robust than its counterparts and overcomes the weakness of the original suppressed clustering algorithm in most cases.