中国物理B ›› 2013, Vol. 22 ›› Issue (2): 28702-028702.doi: 10.1088/1674-1056/22/2/028702

• INTERDISCIPLINARY PHYSICS AND RELATED AREAS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY • 上一篇    下一篇

Modulation of brain functional connectivity with manual acupuncture in healthy subjects: An electroencephalograph case studying

伊国胜a, 王江a, 韩春晓b, 邓斌a, 魏熙乐a, 李诺a   

  1. a School of Electrical and Automation Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China;
    b Tianjin Key Laboratory of Information Sensing & Intelligent Control, Tianjin University of Technology and Education, Tianjin 300222, China
  • 收稿日期:2012-07-09 修回日期:2012-08-23 出版日期:2013-01-01 发布日期:2013-01-01
  • 基金资助:
    Project supported by the Key Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50537030); the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61072012 and 61172009); the Young Scientists Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61104032 and 60901035); and the Tianjin Municipal Natural Science Foundation, China (Grant No. 12JCZDJC21100).

Modulation of brain functional connectivity with manual acupuncture in healthy subjects: An electroencephalograph case studying

Yi Guo-Sheng (伊国胜)a, Wang Jiang (王江)a, Han Chun-Xiao (韩春晓)b, Deng Bin (邓斌)a, Wei Xi-Le (魏熙乐)a, Li Nuo (李诺)a   

  1. a School of Electrical and Automation Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China;
    b Tianjin Key Laboratory of Information Sensing & Intelligent Control, Tianjin University of Technology and Education, Tianjin 300222, China
  • Received:2012-07-09 Revised:2012-08-23 Online:2013-01-01 Published:2013-01-01
  • Contact: Wang Jiang E-mail:jiangwang@tju.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    Project supported by the Key Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50537030); the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61072012 and 61172009); the Young Scientists Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61104032 and 60901035); and the Tianjin Municipal Natural Science Foundation, China (Grant No. 12JCZDJC21100).

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摘要： Manual acupuncture is widely used for pain treatment and stress control. Previous studies on acupuncture have shown its modulatory effects on functional connectivity associated with one or a few preselected brain regions. To investigate how manual acupuncture modulates the organization of functional networks at a whole-brain level, we acupuncture at ST36 of right leg to obtain electroencephalograph (EEG) signals. By coherence estimation, we determine the synchronizations between all pairwise combinations of EEG channels in three acupuncture states. The resulting synchronization matrices are converted into functional networks by applying a threshold, and clustering coefficients and path lengths are computed as a function of threshold. The results show that acupuncture can increase functional connections and synchronizations between different brain areas. For a wide range of threshold, the clustering coefficient during acupuncture and post-acupuncture period is higher than that during the pre-acupuncture control period, whereas characteristic path length is shorter. We provide further support for the presence of "small-world" network characteristics in functional networks by acupuncture. These preliminary results highlight the beneficial modulations of functional connectivity by manual acupuncture, which could contribute to the understanding of acupuncture effects on the entire brain, as well as the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying acupuncture. Moreover, the proposed method may be a useful approach to the further investigation of the complexity of patterns of interrelations between EEG channels.

关键词: manual acupuncture, electroencephalograph, synchronization, functional connectivity

Abstract: Manual acupuncture is widely used for pain treatment and stress control. Previous studies on acupuncture have shown its modulatory effects on functional connectivity associated with one or a few preselected brain regions. To investigate how manual acupuncture modulates the organization of functional networks at a whole-brain level, we acupuncture at ST36 of right leg to obtain electroencephalograph (EEG) signals. By coherence estimation, we determine the synchronizations between all pairwise combinations of EEG channels in three acupuncture states. The resulting synchronization matrices are converted into functional networks by applying a threshold, and clustering coefficients and path lengths are computed as a function of threshold. The results show that acupuncture can increase functional connections and synchronizations between different brain areas. For a wide range of threshold, the clustering coefficient during acupuncture and post-acupuncture period is higher than that during the pre-acupuncture control period, whereas characteristic path length is shorter. We provide further support for the presence of "small-world" network characteristics in functional networks by acupuncture. These preliminary results highlight the beneficial modulations of functional connectivity by manual acupuncture, which could contribute to the understanding of acupuncture effects on the entire brain, as well as the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying acupuncture. Moreover, the proposed method may be a useful approach to the further investigation of the complexity of patterns of interrelations between EEG channels.

Key words: manual acupuncture, electroencephalograph, synchronization, functional connectivity

中图分类号:  (EEG and MEG)

  • 87.19.le
87.85.Pq (Biomedical imaging) 07.05.Pj (Image processing)