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Background Moxibustion has definite clinical effect in improving the cognitive condition of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients, yet its potential neural mechanism remains elusive. This study aimed to investigate the changes of spontaneous brain activity and cognitive function in MCI patients with moxibustion treatment. Methods We enrolled a cohort of 30 MCI patients and 30 matched healthy controls (HCs) in this study. MCI subjects were assigned to receive moxibustion treatment for two months. Based on resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging technique, we used regional homogeneity (ReHo) to evaluate changes in brain activity and Mini-Mental State Examination and Montreal Cognitive Assessment to assess changes in the participants' cognitive performance. Results There existed aberrant ReHo values in different brain areas mainly involved in the default mode network (DMN) in MCI subjects compared with HCs. After moxibustion treatment, MCI subjects showed an inverse change in ReHo values from baseline in the hippocampus/parahippocampus and insula, as well as an increase ReHo value in the middle frontal gyrus. Furthermore, changes in ReHo values of the left hippocampus/parahippocampus and middle frontal gyrus correlated with cognitive improvement in MCI group. Conclusion Abnormal neural activity occurred in MCI subjects mainly within the DMN. Moxibustion therapy may improve the cognitive function of MCI subjects through regulating their brain activity, particularly reversing the neural activity of DMN and salience network at reset, and may hold great potential for the early intervention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is a menstrual cycle-related disorder. Previous studies have indicated alterations of brain functional connectivity in PMS patients. However, little is known about the overall organization of brain network in PMS patients. Functional magnetic resonance imaging data deriving from 20 PMS patients and 21 healthy controls (HCs). Pearson correlation between mean time-series was used to estimate connectivity matrix between each paired regions of interest, and the connectivity matrix for each participant was then binarized. Graph theory analysis was applied to assess each participant's global and local topological properties of brain functional network. Correlation analysis was performed to evaluate relationships between the daily rating of severity of problems (DRSP) and abnormal network properties. PMS patients had lower small-worldness values than HCs. PMS-related alterations of nodal properties were mainly found in the posterior cingulate cortex, precuneus and angular gyrus. The PMS-related abnormal connectivity components were mainly associated with the thalamus, putamen and middle cingulate cortex. In the PMS group, the DRSP score were negatively correlated with the area under the curves of nodal local efficiency in the posterior cingulate cortex. Our study suggests that the graph-theory method may be one potential tool to detect disruptions of brain connections and may provide important evidence for understanding the PMS from the disrupted network organization perspective.

Background: Acupuncture is an effective therapy for premenstrual syndrome (PMS). However, the mechanisms behind this method are still unclear. Our previous study found that aberrant amygdala resting-state functional networks were involved in PMS. Thereby, a deep investigation on the alterations of amygdala resting-state functional networks induced by acupuncture stimulation might contribute to a better understanding of the intricate mechanisms of acupuncture treatment on PMS. Methods: Twenty three PMS patients were recruited in this study. All patients received a 6-minute electro-acupuncture stimulation (EAS) at Sanyinjiao acupoint (SP6) and underwent two 6-minute resting-state fMRI scannings before and after EAS. With amygdala as the seed region, functional connectivity (FC) method was adopted to examine EAS-related modulation of intrinsic connectivity in PMS patients by comparing pre-EAS. Results: The results showed that EAS at SP6 induced increased FC between the left amygdala and brainstem, right hippocampus, and decreased FC between the left amygdala and left thalamus, bilateral supplementary motor area (SMA). Moreover, the results also showed that EAS at SP6 induced increased FC between the right amygdala and brainstem, right hippocampus, right orbitofrontal cortex, bilateral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and decreased FC between the right amygdala and right SMA. Conclusions: Based on the results of our previous study, our findings might improve our understanding of neural mechanisms behind acupuncture effects on PMS.

We sought to evaluate the performance of a new "one-stop-shop" scan protocol combining brain computed tomography perfusion (CTP) and head-and-neck CT angiography (CTA) imaging for acute stroke patients using a 256-detector CT scanner.From March to August 2020, 60 patients (30 men and 30 women) aged 22-88 years with suspected acute stroke were enrolled and randomly divided into 2 groups to undergo brain CTP and head-and-neck CTA with a 256-detector CT system. Group A used traditional scan protocol with a separate brain CTP and head-and-neck CT examination that included non-contrast-enhanced and contrast-enhanced acquisitions; group B used the new "one-stop-shop" scan protocol with head-and-neck CTA data inserted into brain CTP scans at the peak time (PT) of the arterial phase. The insertion point of the head-and-neck CTA data was determined by a test bolus. The examination time, contrast dose, radiation dose, and image quality were compared between the groups.The total contrast dose was reduced by 40% in group B compared to group A (60 mL vs. 100 mL). The imaging time was 52.5 ± 2.6 s in group B and 74.9 ± 3.3 s in group A, showing a reduction of approximately 43% in group B. There was no significant difference in image quality both quantitatively and qualitatively between the groups (all P 0.05). Group B had a slight reduction in dose length product (1139.0 ± 45.3 vs. 1211.6 ± 31.9 mGy·cm, P 0.001).The proposed "one-stop-shop" scan protocol combining brain CTP and head-and-neck CTA on a 256-detector CT system can reduce imaging time and contrast dose, without affecting image quality or perfusion results, compared to the traditional protocol of separating the examinations.

Highlights • Covariant abnormalities of GM and WM occurred in SCD and MCI. • GM-WM covariant abnormalities were correlated with cognitive performance in SCD. • Multimodal fusion highlighted the interaction of sMRI and DTI in SCD and MCI., Background Previous multimodal neuroimaging studies analyzed each dataset independently in subjective cognitive decline (SCD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), missing the cross-information. Multi-modal fusion analysis can provide more integral and comprehensive information regarding the brain. There has been a paucity of research on fusion analysis of sMRI and DTI in SCD and MCI. Materials and Methods In the present study, we conducted fusion analysis of structural MRI and DTI by applying multimodal canonical correlation analysis with joint independent component analysis (mCCA-jICA) to capture the cross-information of gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) in 62 SCD patients, 99 MCI patients, and 70 healthy controls (HCs). We further analyzed correlations between the mixing coefficients of mCCA-jICA and neuropsychological scores among the three groups. Results A set of joint-discriminative independent components of GM and fractional anisotropy (FA) exhibited significant links between SCD and HCs, as well as between MCI and HCs. The covariant abnormalities primarily involved the frontal lobe/middle temporal gyrus/calcarine sulcus-anterior thalamic radiation/superior longitudinal fasciculus in SCD, and middle temporal gyrus/ fusiform gyrus/caudate necleus-forceps minor/anterior thalamic radiation in MCI. There was no significant difference between SCD and MCI groups. Conclusions The covariant GM-WM abnormalities in SCD and MCI were found in specific brain regions involved in cognitive processing, which confirms the simultaneous GM and WM changes underlying cognitive decline. These findings suggest that multimodal fusion analysis allows for a more comprehensive understanding of the association among different types of brain tissues and its crucial role in the neuropathological mechanism of SCD and MCI.

To explore the effect of moxa cone moxibustion onOne hundred eight patients with MCI were served as the MCI group, and 67 age-matched subjects were enrolled as the normal control group. The MCI group was randomized and allocated into acupoint group, drug group, and sham acupoint group, with 36 cases in each group. Some patients in each group withdrew. Finally, 25 cases were included in the acupoint group, 24 cases in the drug group, and 20 cases in the sham acupoint group. The drug group was treated with oral donepezil hydrochloride. The acupoint group and sham acupoint group received moxa cone moxibustion treatment. Mini-mental state exam (MMSE) and Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA) scores were recorded before intervention, at the end of the first and the second months of intervention, and in the 5th month of follow-up. The NAA/tCr and Cho/tCr ratios in the HIP and PCG were bilaterally measured byBefore intervention, compared with the normal control group, the MMSE and MoCA scores, the Cho/tCr ratio in the right HIP, the NAA/tCr ratio in the bilateral HIP, and the NAA/tCr ratio in the left PCG in the three treatment groups decreased significantly (bothOur findings suggest that moxibustion could improve the cognitive function of patients with MCI. The mechanism may be related to the improvement of abnormal brain metabolism in HIP and PCG.

Background: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is often the prodromal stage to Alzheimer's disease (AD). Most patients with MCI harbor the pathologic changes of AD and experience progressive brain metabolites change. We investigated the changes of metabolites in bilateral hippocampus (HIP) and posterior cingulate gyrus (PCG) in MCI patients, and observed the effects of moxa cone moxibustion on the metabolites of bilateral hippocampus and posterior cingulate gyrus in patients with MCI.Methods: Sixty-nine patients with MCI and sixty-seven cases of age-matched normal controls (NC) were enrolled in this study.MCI patients were randomly divided into drug group(Drug, n=24),sham acupoint group(Sham, n=20) and acupoint group(Acupoint, n=25).All subjects received proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) for measurement of NAA/tCr and Cho/tCr ratios in bilateral hippocampus and posterior cingulate gyrus before and after treatment. Mini-Mental Status Examination(MMSE) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment(MoCA) were used to evaluate cognitive function.Results: MCI patients were characterized by lower NAA/tCr in bilateral hippocampus and posterior cingulate gyrus and Cho/tCr in right hippocampus compared to those in NC group(P < 0.05). After two months treatment, NAA/tCr in bilateral hippocampus and posterior cingulate gyrus and Cho/tCr in right hippocampus were increased in the three treatment groups, and there was no significant difference compared to NC group(P > 0.05).NAA/tCr in right hippocampus and Cho/tCr of right posterior cingulate gyrus of acupoint group was significantly higher than those in sham acupoint group(P < 0.05) and NC group(P < 0.05).The scores of MMSE and MOCA in the acupoint group and sham acupoint group were better than those in the drug group, especially in the long-term efficacy.Conclusions: Moxa cone moxibustion may improve the cognitive function of MCI patients by regulating the abnormal metabolites of bilateral hippocampus and posterior cingulate gyrus. MRS can provide objective imaging basis for moxibustion prevention and treatment of MCI.Trial Registration: ChiCTR-IPR-16009144 (Retroactively registered on 26 AUG 2016)

Objective: This cross-sectional study aimed to distinguish patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) from patients with normal controls (NCs) by measuring the levels of N-acetyl aspartate (NAA), total creatinine (tCr), and choline (Cho) in their hippocampus (HIP) and their posterior cingulate gyrus (PCG) by using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and to predict the cutoff value on the ratios of metabolites. We further aimed to provide a reference for the diagnosis of MCI in elderly patients in China.Methods: About 69 patients who underwent a clinical diagnosis of the MCI group and 67 patients with NCs, the Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE) score, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) score, and MRS of the bilateral HIP and bilateral PCG were considered. The ratio of NAA/tCr and Cho/tCr in the bilateral HIP and bilateral PCG was calculated. The relationship between the ratios of metabolites and the scores of MMSE and MoCA was analyzed, and the possible brain metabolite cutoff point for the diagnosis of MCI was evaluated.Results: Compared with the NC group, the scores of MMSE and MoCA in the MCI group decreased significantly (p < 0.05); the ratio of NAA/tCr in the bilateral HIP and bilateral PCG and the ratio of Cho/tCr at the right HIP in the MCI group decreased significantly (p < 0.05); however, there was no significant difference in the ratio of Cho/tCr in the left HIP and bilateral PCG between the two groups (p > 0.05). The correlation coefficient between MMSE/MoCA and the ratio of NAA/tCr was 0.49–0.56 in the bilateral HIP (p < 0.01). The best cutoff value of NAA/creatine (Cr) in the left HIP and the right HIP was 1.195 and 1.19. Sensitivity, specificity, and the Youden index (YDI) in the left HIP and the right HIP were (0.725, 0.803, 0.528) and (0.754, 0.803, 0.557), respectively.Conclusion: The level of metabolites in the HIP and the PCG of patients with MCI and of those with normal subjects has a certain correlation with the score of their MMSE and MoCA. When the value of NAA/tCr in the left HIP and right HIP is

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Background The brain’s dynamic spontaneous neural activity and dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) are both important in supporting cognition, but how these two types of brain dynamics evolve and co-evolve in subjective cognitive decline (SCD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) remain unclear. The aim of the present study was to investigate recurrent and concurrent patterns of two types of dynamic brain states correlated with cognitive decline. Methods The present study analyzed resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data from 62 SCD patients, 75 MCI patients, and 70 healthy controls (HCs). We used the sliding-window and clustering method to identify two types of recurrent brain states from both dFC and dynamic regional spontaneous activity, as measured by dynamic fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (dfALFF). Then, the occurrence frequency of a dFC or dfALFF state and the co-occurrence frequency of a pair of dFC and dfALFF states among all time points are extracted for each participant to describe their dynamics brain patterns. Results We identified a few recurrent states of dfALFF and dFC and further ascertained the co-occurrent patterns of these two types of dynamic brain states (i.e., dfALFF and dFC states). Importantly, the occurrence frequency of a default-mode network (DMN)-dominated dFC state was significantly different between HCs and SCD patients, and the co-occurrence frequencies of a DMN-dominated dFC state and a DMN-dominated dfALFF state were also significantly different between SCD and MCI patients. These two dynamic features were both significantly positively correlated with Mini-Mental State Examination scores. Conclusion Our findings revealed novel fMRI-based neural signatures of cognitive decline from recurrent and concurrent patterns of dfALFF and dFC, providing strong evidence supporting SCD as the transition phase between normal aging and MCI. This finding holds potential to differentiate SCD patients from HCs via both dFC and dfALFF as objective neuroimaging biomarkers, which may aid in the early diagnosis and intervention of Alzheimer’s disease.

Background Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is a prevalent gynecological disease and is significantly associated with abnormal neural activity. Acupuncture is an effective treatment on PMS in clinical practice. However, few studies have been performed to investigate whether acupuncture might modulate the abnormal neural activity in patients with PMS. Thereby, the aim of the study was to assess alterations of the brain activity induced by acupuncture stimulation in PMS patients. Methods Twenty PMS patients were enrolled in this study. All patients received a 6-min resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) scan before and after electro-acupuncturing stimulation (EAS) at Sanyinjiao (SP6) acupoint in the late luteal phase of menstrual. Fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF) method was applied to examine the EAS-related brain changes in PMS patients. Results Compared with pre-EAS at SP6, increased fALFF value in several brain regions induced by SP6, including brainstem, right thalamus, bilateral insula, right paracentral lobule, bilateral cerebellum, meanwhile, decreased fALFF in the left cuneus, right precuneus, left inferior temporal cortex. Conclusions Our findings provide imaging evidence to support that SP6-related acupuncture stimulation may modulate the neural activity in patients with PMS. This study may partly interpret the neural mechanisms of acupuncture at SP6 which is used to treat PMS patients in clinical. Trial registration: The study was registered on http://www.chictr.org.cn. The Clinical Trial Registration Number is ChiCTR-OPC-15005918, registry in 29/01/2015.

Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) is an early stage of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and may represent the first symptom manifestation of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Early diagnosis of MCI is important because early identification and intervention can delay or even reverse the progression of this disease. This paper proposes an automatic diagnostic framework for SCD and MCI. Specifically, we design a new multi-task learning model to integrate neuroimaging functional and structural connectivity in a predictive framework. We construct a functional brain network by sparse low-rank brain network estimation methods, and a structural brain network is constructed using fiber bundle tracking. Subsequently, we use multi-task learning methods to select features for integrated functional and structural connections, the importance of each task and the balance between both modalities are automatically learned. By integrating both functional and structural information, the most discriminative features of the disease are obtained for diagnosis. The experiments on the dataset show that our proposed method achieves good performance and is superior to the traditional algorithms. In addition, the proposed method can identify the most discriminative brain regions and connections. These results follow current clinical findings and add new findings for disease detection and future medical analysis.

Background Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is characterized by a series of emotional, physical and behavioral symptoms. Although PMS is related to dysfunctions of the central nervous system, the neuropathological mechanism of PMS still has not been clearly established. The aim of this study is to evaluate potential differences in both cortical thickness and subcortical volumes in PMS patients compared to healthy controls (HCs). Methods Twenty PMS patients and twenty HCs underwent a structural magnetic resonance imaging scan and clinical assessment. Cortical thickness and subcortical volumes were computed using the FreeSurfer image analysis suite. Relationships between cortical thickness/subcortical volumes and the daily rating of severity of problems (DRSP) score were then measured in patients. Results Compared to HCs, PMS patients exhibited reduced cortical thickness in the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and insula, and increased subcortical volumes of the amygdala, thalamus and pallidum. Furthermore, negative correlations were detected between the DRSP and cortical thickness in the anterior cingulate cortex and precuneus. Limitations The study is limited by a small sample size and narrow age range of participants. Conclusions Our findings indicate that the abnormal morphological changes are mainly implicated in emotional regulation and visceral perception in PMS patients. We hope that our study may contribute to a better understanding of PMS.

Early diagnosis and intervention of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and its early stage (i.e., subjective cognitive decline (SCD)) is able to delay or reverse the disease progression. However, discrimination between SCD, MCI and healthy subjects accurately remains challenging. This paper proposes an auto-weighted centralised multi-task (AWCMT) learning framework for differential diagnosis of SCD and MCI. AWCMT is based on structural and functional connectivity information inferred from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). To be specific, we devise a novel multi-task learning algorithm to combine neuroimaging functional and structural connective information. We construct a functional brain network through a sparse and low-rank machine learning method, and also a structural brain network via fibre bundle tracking. Those two networks are constructed separately and independently. Multi-task learning is then used to identify features integration of functional and structural connectivity. Hence, we can learn each task's significance automatically in a balanced way. By combining the functional and structural information, the most informative features of SCD and MCI are obtained for diagnosis. The extensive experiments on the public and self-collected datasets demonstrate that the proposed algorithm obtains better performance in classifying SCD, MCI and healthy people than traditional algorithms. The newly proposed method has good interpretability as it is able to discover the most disease-related brain regions and their connectivity. The results agree well with current clinical findings and provide new insights into early AD detection based on the multi-modal neuroimaging technique.

To assess structural and functional changes of the amygdala due to premenstrual syndrome (PMS) using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Twenty PMS patients and 21 healthy control (HC) subjects underwent a 6-min resting-state fMRI scan during the luteal phase as well as scanning high-resolution T1-weighted images. Subcortical amygdala-related volume and functional connectivity (FC) were estimated between the two groups. Each subject completed a daily record of severity of problems (DRSP) to measure the severity of clinical symptoms. Greater bilateral amygdalae volumes were found in PMS patients compared with HC subjects, and PMS patients had increased FC between the amygdala and certain regions of the frontal cortex (e.g. medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), right precentral gyrus), the right temporal pole and the insula, as well as decreased FC between the bilateral amygdalae and the right orbitofrontal cortex and right hippocampus. The strength of FC between the right amygdala and right precentral gyrus, left ACC and left mPFC were significantly and positively correlated with DRSP scores in PMS patients. Our findings may improve our understanding of the neural mechanisms involved in PMS. • Functional and structural MRI used to explore amygdala in PMS patients. • Aberrant amygdala structural and functional connectivity were found in PMS patients. • Amygdala strength FC was positively correlated with individual clinical symptom scores.

Purpose To investigate differences in hippocampal activity between premenstrual syndrome (PMS) patients and healthy controls, to elucidate the neural mechanisms of PMS. Materials and Methods Twenty female patients with PMS (PMS group) and 21 healthy controls (HC group) underwent a single-shot gradient-recalled echo planar imaging (EPI) sequence scan during the luteal phase in 3.0 Tesla MRI. Spontaneous neural activity in hippocampus (HIPP) was measured by fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF). Functional connectivity (FC) was used to examine the neural networks of PMS patients by selecting the abnormal HIPP as the seed region. All participants completed a daily record of severity of problems (DRSP) questionnaire to measure the severity of clinical symptoms. Results Results from a two-sample t-test showed increased left HIPP fALFF in the PMS group compared with the HC group (P = 0.042), while there was no between-group difference of fALFF in the right HIPP (P = 0.1011). A secondary analysis using a two-sample t-test with the left HIPP as the seed region, the results revealed that the PMS group exhibited increased FC between the left HIPP and left medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), left posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), right middle cingulate cortex (MCC), and bilateral precentral cortex (PC), while decreased FC between the left HIPP and right orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Moreover, the PMS group exhibited higher DRSP scores, which were positively correlated (r = 0.64, P = 0.003) with FC between the left HIPP and mPFC during the luteal phase. Conclusion Altered spontaneous neural activity and connectivity of left HIPP may be involved in PMS. Level of Evidence: 1 Technical Efficacy: Stage 2 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2017.

Background: Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is a menstrual cycle-related disorder involved in brain functional dysregulation. Acupuncture is an effective alternative therapy for treating PMS, and sanyinjiao (SP6) is one of the most common acupoints used for improving the symptoms of PMS. However, it is not clear whether or not the potential mechanisms of acupuncture on PMS is related to acupuncture effects on modulating the brain of PMS. The aim of this work was to investigate the specific brain response patterns in PMS patients induced by acupuncture at SP6. Methods and Materials: 23 females with PMS were enrolled in this study. All patients received a 6-min electro-acupuncture stimulation (EAS) at SP6 and underwent two 6-min resting state fMRI scans before and after EAS. Regional homogeneity (ReHo) method was used to examine response patterns of the whole brain induced by EAS at SP6 with comparison to the resting state of pre-EAS. This study was registered at http://www.chictr.org.cn, the Clinical Trial Registration Number was ChiCTR-OPC-15005918, and the registration number was achieved at 29/01/2015. Results: Compared to pre-EAS, EAS at SP6 elicited the decreased ReHo values in the bilateral precuneus, left middle frontal cortex and right inferior frontal cortex, while increased ReHo values in the bilateral insula, bilateral thalamus, left putamen and right primary somatosensory cortex. Conclusions: The current study provide imaging evidence to support that SP6-related acupuncture stimulation could modulate the abnormal neural activity in PMS patients. Our study may partly interpret the neural mechanisms of acupuncture at SP6 which is used to treat PMS patients in clinical.

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is a menstrual cycle-related disorder. Although the precise pathophysiology is not fully understood, it is increasingly believed that the central nervous system plays a vital role in the development of PMS. The aim of this study is to elucidate specific functional connectivity between the thalamus and cerebral cortex. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were obtained from 20 PMS patients and 21 healthy controls (HCs). Seed-based functional connectivity between the thalamus and six cortical regions of interest, including the prefrontal cortex (PFC), posterior parietal cortex, somatosensory cortex, motor cortex/supplementary motor area, temporal and occipital lobe, was adopted to identify specific thalamocortical connectivity in the two groups. Correlation analysis was then used to examine relationships between the neuroimaging findings and clinical symptoms. Activity in distinct cortical regions correlated with specific sub-regions of the thalamus in the two groups. Comparison between groups exhibited decreased prefrontal-thalamic connectivity and increased posterior parietal-thalamic connectivity in the PMS patients. Within the PMS group, the daily record of severity of problems (DRSP) score negatively correlated with the prefrontal-thalamic connectivity. Our findings may provide preliminary evidence for abnormal thalamocortical connectivity in PMS patients and may contribute to a better understanding of the pathophysiology of PMS.

Background: Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is a menstrual cycle-related disorder which causes physical and mood changes prior to menstruation and is associated with the functional dysregulation of the brain. Acupuncture is an effective alternative therapy for treating PMS, and sanyinjiao (SP6) is one of the most common acupoints used for improving the symptoms of PMS. However, the mechanism behind acupuncture’s efficacy for relieving PMS symptoms remains unclear. The aim of this study was to identify the brain response patterns induced by acupuncture at acupoint SP6 in patients with PMS. Materials and Methods: Twenty-three females with PMS were enrolled in this study. All patients underwent resting-state fMRI data collection before and after 6 min of electroacupuncture stimulation (EAS) at SP6. A regional homogeneity (ReHo) approach was used to compare patients’ brain responses before and after EAS at SP6 using REST software. The present study was registered at http://www.chictr.org.cn, and the Clinical Trial Registration Number is ChiCTR-OPC-15005918. Results: EAS at SP6 elicited decreased ReHo value at the bilateral precuneus, right inferior frontal cortex (IFC) and left middle frontal cortex (MFC). In contrast, increased ReHo value was found at the bilateral thalamus, bilateral insula, left putamen and right primary somatosensory cortex (S1). Conclusions: Our study provides an underlying neuroimaging evidence that the aberrant neural activity of PMS patients could be regulated by acupuncture at SP6.

Background: Previous studies have revealed that the etiologies of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) refer to menstrual cycle related brain changes. However, its intrinsic neural mechanism is still unclear. The aim of the present study was to assess abnormal spontaneous brain activity and to explicate the intricate neural mechanism of PMS using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS-fMRI). Materials and Methods: The data of 20 PMS patients (PMS group) and 21 healthy controls (HC group) were analyzed by regional homogeneity (ReHo) method during the late luteal phase of menstrual cycle. In addition, all the participants were asked to complete a daily record of severity of problems (DRSP) questionnaire. Results: Compared with HC group, the results showed that PMS group had increased ReHo mainly in the bilateral precuneus, left inferior temporal cortex (ITC), right inferior frontal cortex (IFC) and left middle frontal cortex (MFC) and decreased ReHo in the right anterior cingulate cortex(ACC) at the luteal phase. Moreover, the PMS group had higher DRSP scores, and the DRSP scores positively correlated with ReHo in left MFC and negatively correlated with ReHo in the right ACC. Conclusion: Our results suggest that abnormal spontaneous brain activity is found in PMS patients and the severity of symptom is specifically related to the left MFC and right ACC. The present findings may be beneficial to explicate the intricate neural mechanism of PMS.

To investigate differences in hippocampal activity between premenstrual syndrome (PMS) patients and healthy controls, to elucidate the neural mechanisms of PMS.Twenty female patients with PMS (PMS group) and 21 healthy controls (HC group) underwent a single-shot gradient-recalled echo planar imaging (EPI) sequence scan during the luteal phase in 3.0 Tesla MRI. Spontaneous neural activity in hippocampus (HIPP) was measured by fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (fALFF). Functional connectivity (FC) was used to examine the neural networks of PMS patients by selecting the abnormal HIPP as the seed region. All participants completed a daily record of severity of problems (DRSP) questionnaire to measure the severity of clinical symptoms.Results from a two-sample t-test showed increased left HIPP fALFF in the PMS group compared with the HC group (P = 0.042), while there was no between-group difference of fALFF in the right HIPP (P = 0.1011). A secondary analysis using a two-sample t-test with the left HIPP as the seed region, the results revealed that the PMS group exhibited increased FC between the left HIPP and left medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), left posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), right middle cingulate cortex (MCC), and bilateral precentral cortex (PC), while decreased FC between the left HIPP and right orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Moreover, the PMS group exhibited higher DRSP scores, which were positively correlated (r = 0.64, P = 0.003) with FC between the left HIPP and mPFC during the luteal phase.Altered spontaneous neural activity and connectivity of left HIPP may be involved in PMS.1 Technical Efficacy: Stage 2 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018;47:545-553.

Background Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is becoming highly prevalent among female and is characterized by emotional, physical and behavior symptoms. Previous evidence suggested functional dysregulation of female brain was expected to be involved in the etiology of PMS. The aim of present study was to evaluate the alterations of spontaneous brain activity in PMS patients based on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Methods 20 PMS patients and 21 healthy controls underwent resting-state fMRI scanning during luteal phase. All participants were asked to complete a prospective daily record of severity of problems (DRSP) questionnaire. Results Compared with healthy controls, the results showed that PMS patients had increased fALFF in bilateral precuneus, left hippocampus and left inferior temporal cortex, and decreased fALFF in bilateral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and cerebellum at luteal phase. Moreover, the DRSP scores of PMS patients were negatively correlated with the mean fALFF in ACC and positively correlated with the fALFF in precuneus. Limitations (1) the study did not investigate whether or not abnormal brain activity differences between groups in mid-follicular phase, and within-group changes. between phases.(2) it was relatively limited sample size and the participants were young; (3) fALFF could not provide us with more holistic information of brain network;(4) the comparisons of PMS and premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) were not involved in the study. Conclusions The present study shows abnormal spontaneous brain activity in PMS patients revealed by fALFF, which could provide neuroimaging evidence to further improve our understanding of the underlying neural mechanism of PMS.

According to the Traditional Chinese Medicine theory of acupuncture, Baihui (GV20) is applied to treat neurological and psychiatric disorders. However, the relationships between neural responses and GV20 remain unknown. Thus, the main aim of this study was to examine the brain responses induced by electro-acupuncture stimulation (EAS) at GV20.Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was performed in 33 healthy subjects. Based on the non-repeated event-related (NRER) paradigm, group differences were examined between GV20 and a sham acupoint using the regional homogeneity (ReHo) method.Compared with the sham acupoint, EAS at GV20 induced increased ReHo in regions including the orbital frontal cortex (OFC), middle cingulate cortex (MCC), precentral cortex, and precuneus (preCUN). Decreased ReHo was found in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), supplementary motor area (SMA), thalamus, putamen, and cerebellum.The current findings provide preliminary neuroimaging evidence to indicate that EAS at GV20 could induce a specific pattern of neural responses by analysis of ReHo of brain activity. These findings might improve the understanding of mechanisms of acupuncture stimulation at GV20.

Background: Previous neuroimaging studies have revealed that acupuncture modulates the default mode network (DMN) in healthy subjects and patients with certain disorder. However, few studies have been performed to investigate whether or not acupuncture might modulate the DMN in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Thereby, the aim of the present study was to assess alterations of the DMN induced by acupuncture stimulation in patients with first-episode, drug-naive MDD. Materials and Methods: 29 patients with first-episode, drug-naive MDD and 29 healthy subjects were enrolled in this study. All the healthy subjects underwent 6-minute resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (R-fMRI) scan. While patients underwent acupuncture stimulation for 20-minute electro-acupuncture stimulation (EAS) at Baihui acupoint (GV20) and two 6-minute R-fMRI scans before and after EAS. Based on the precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex (PC/PCC) as the seed region, functional connectivity (FC) method was adopted to examine abnormal DMN in patients by comparing with healthy subjects and to evaluate the influence of EAS on intrinsic connectivity within the DMN in patients with MDD. Results: Compared to healthy subjects, MDD patients had abnormal DMN. Moreover, results showed that EAS at GV20 induced increased FC between the PC/PCC and bilateral anterior cingulate cortex(ACC), and decreased FC between the PC/PCC and left middle prefrontal cortex, left angualr gyrus and bilateral hippocampus/parahippocampus (HIPP/paraHIPP) in patients with MDD, which were the main brain regions showing significant differences between the patients and healthy subjects. Conclusions: Our findings provide imaging evidence to support that GV20-related acupuncture stimulation may modulate the DMN in patients with first-episode, drug-naive MDD. This study may partly interpret the neural mechanisms of acupuncture at GV20 which is used to treat patients with MDD in clinical.

Baihui (GV20), an important acupoint of the Governor Vessel according to the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) theory of acupuncture, is usually used for treatments of psychiatric disorders. However, studies about relationships between the brain activities and GV20 are limited. In the present study, we thereby tried to investigate specific pattern of brain activities induced by electroacupuncture stimulation (EAS) at GV20. Thirty three healthy subjects were enrolled in this study for MRI scanning. Each subject underwent EAS at GV20 and at sham acupoint, separately. Based on sustained effects of acupuncture, amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation and fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF/fALFF) methods were used to examine different ALFF and fALFF patterns of the whole brain induced by GV20 with comparison to the ones induced by sham acupoint. Results showed that GV20 induced altered ALFF/fALFF in the brain regions, including the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), orbital frontal cortex (OFC), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and middle cingulate cortex (MCC), temporal cortex (TC), supplementary motor area (SMA), precuneus, thalamus, hippocampus (HIPP), insula, putamen and cerebellum compared to sham acupoint. Our findings might present the specific neural responses to EAS at GV20 using ALFF and fALFF methods, and may further provide preliminary evidence for understanding the mechanisms of GV20.