The hybrid GLM-ICA investigation on the neural mechanism of acupoint ST36: an fMRI study.

Ample clinical reports and neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that the acupuncture has sustained effects after manipulation. However, most previous fMRI studies of acupuncture have paid little attention to this issue, only investigating on the manipulation effects. In the current study, we attempted to explore both acupuncture effects, which have positive influence to therapeutic efficiency, to reveal the neural mechanism of acupuncture.

Altered small-world brain functional networks and duration of heroin use in male abstinent heroin-dependent individuals.

Although previous studies reported addiction-related alteration in resting-state brain connectivity, it is unclear whether these resting-state connectivity alterations were associated with chronic heroin use. In the current study, graph theory analysis (GTA) was applied to detect abnormal topological properties in heroin-dependent individuals. Several statistical parameters, such as degree (D), clustering coefficient (C) and shortest absolute path length (L), were included to test whether or not there was significant correlation between these parameters and the duration of heroin use.

[Treatment of Pilon fractures complicated with fractures of fibula with titanic elastic nailing].

Objective: To explore the effect of titanic elastic nailing (TEN) fixing for Pilon fractures complicated with fractures of fibula.

Methods: From March 2007 to March 2009, 20 patients with Pilon fractures complicated with fractures of fibula were surgically treated with TEN. There were 14 males and 7 females with an average age of 42.

Anterior cingulate activity and the self in disorders of consciousness.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between medial cortical activation and the presence of self and consciousness in healthy subjects and patients with vegetative state and minimally conscious state using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Experiment Design: We first conducted two fMRI experiments in healthy subjects to identify brain regions specifically associated with self-perception through the use of different auditory stimuli that had different grades of self-relatedness. We then applied these regions as functional localizers to examine the relationship between neural activity changes during self-relatedness and consciousness level in the patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC).

fMRI study of mesial temporal lobe epilepsy using amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation analysis.

Various functional imaging tools have been used to detect epileptic activity in the neural network underlying mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE). In the present fMRI study, a data-driven approach was employed to map interictal epileptic activity in mTLE patients by measuring the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) of the blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal. Twenty-four left mTLE patients and 26 right mTLE patients were investigated by comparing with 25 healthy subjects.

Altered spontaneous neuronal activity of the default-mode network in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy.

Increasing evidence from behavioral and neuroimaging studies suggests that mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE) is possibly associated with the default-mode brain function. However, the alteration of coherent neural activities in such a default-mode network (DMN) in mTLE has yet to be investigated. The present study analyzed the resting-state functional MRI data from two groups of mTLE patients with left and right hippocampal sclerosis using independent component analysis.

Neural specificity of acupuncture stimulation at pericardium 6: evidence from an FMRI study.

Purpose: To investigate the neural specificity of pericardium PC6, with the same meridian acupoint PC7 and a treatment-irrelevant acupoint GB37 as separate controls.

Materials And Methods: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the whole brain was performed in 36 healthy subjects receiving acupuncture at three acupoints, respectively: the study acupoint (PC6), and control acupoints (PC7 and GB37). A novel nonrepeated event-related (NRER) design paradigm was applied to separately detect neural activities related to different stages of acupuncture (needling manipulation and post-acupuncture rest epoch).

Distinct brain networks for time-varied characteristics of acupuncture.

Clinical acupuncture typically involves an effective treatment phase several hours post-therapy. We previously identified regions that carry the time-varied signals based on the BLOCK experimental paradigm. Here we characterize the brain network by applying the graph theory analysis during the post-acupuncture resting state.

Numbers in the cultural brain.

Recent functional neuroimaging studies have indicated that culture may contribute to differential representation of Arabic numbers in the brain of Chinese and English speakers. The brain networks underlying even very simple arithmetic operation differ among these groups. To what extent do different cultures lead to differences in functional connectivity among the distributed brain areas that constitute the network supporting numerical and arithmetic processes? Key cultural differences are educational system, learning strategy, reading experience, and even genetic background; which ones are important? This review addresses these questions and summarizes findings from recent research on number/arithmetic cognition as well related studies in other cognitive domains.

Gray matter density negatively correlates with duration of heroin use in young lifetime heroin-dependent individuals.

Numerous studies have documented cognitive impairments and hypoactivity in the prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortices in drug users. However, the relationships between opiate dependence and brain structure changes in heroin users are largely unknown. In the present study, we measured the density of gray matter (DGM) with voxel-based morphometry in 30 lifetime heroin-dependent individuals who had abstained from drug use for 5 months, and 34 healthy participants.

Partial correlation investigation on the default mode network involved in acupuncture: an fMRI study.

Certain clinical reports and researches have shown that acupuncture effects can sustain a period during the post-stimulation state, and modulate the default mode network (DMN). In this study, partial correlation approach was utilized to investigate whether or not electro-acupuncture stimulation (EAS) at the three acupoints (GB37 (Guangming), BL60 (Kunlun) and KI8 (Jiaoxin)) and one sham point on the left leg modulated the DMN and how to change the intrinsic connectivity of the DMN. The results indicated that DMN could be modulated after EAS, and there existed different modulation patterns of the four points.

Detecting directional influence in fMRI connectivity analysis using PCA based Granger causality.

An fMRI connectivity analysis approach combining both principal component analysis (PCA) and Granger causality method (GCM) is proposed to study directional influence between functional brain regions. Both simulated data and human fMRI data obtained during behavioral tasks were used to validate this method. If PCA is first used to reduce number of fMRI time series, then more energy and information features in the signal can be preserved than using averaged values from brain regions of interest.

Combining spatial and temporal information to explore function-guide action of acupuncture using fMRI.

Purpose: To investigate the brain response patterns of modulation of GB37 (Guangming) and KI8 (Jiaoxin).

Materials And Methods: An experiment using nonrepeated event-related fMRI design was carried out on 28 subjects with electroacupuncture stimulation (EAS) at GB37 or KI8 on the left leg. The discrete cosine transform and functional connectivity methods were adopted to detect the differences related with these two acupoints before and after the EAS.

Impaired perceptual networks in temporal lobe epilepsy revealed by resting fMRI.

Viewed as a neural network disorder, mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE) may cause widespread deficits in human brain functions. Impairments in cognitive functions such as memory and language have been well addressed, but perceptual deficits have only been considered in terms of behavioral data. Little imaging research on perceptual deficits in mTLE has been reported.

Dysfunctional connectivity patterns in chronic heroin users: an fMRI study.

Recent functional neuroimaging studies have examined cognitive inhibitory control, decision-making and stress regulation in heroin addiction using a cue-reactivity paradigm. Few studies have considered impairments in heroin users from an integrated perspective for evaluation of their brain functions. We hypothesized that the brain regions that are dysregulated in the chronic heroin users during cue-reactivity studies may also show dysfunctional connectivity in memory, inhibition and motivation-related dysfunctions during a resting state free of cues.

Comparison of visual cortical activations induced by electro-acupuncture at vision and nonvision-related acupoints.

In the current study, we investigated whether or not stimulation at vision and nonvision-related acupoints was able to induce similarity in the time domain, although stimulation at different acupoints could produce similar spatial distributions. This phenomenon still remains uncertain and contradictory. We introduced a novel experimental paradigm using a modified non-repeated event-related (NRER) design, and utilized the methods of independent component analysis (ICA) combined with seed correlated functional connectivity analysis to locate visual cortical activations and to study their temporal characteristics during electro-acupuncture (EAS) at vision-related acupoint GB 37 and nonvision-related acupoint KI 8.

Early childhood obesity is associated with compromised cerebellar development.

As part of a study investigating commonalities between Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS-a genetic imprinting disorder) and early-onset obesity of unknown etiology (EMO) we measured total cerebral and cerebellar volume on volumetric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images. Individuals with PWS (N = 16) and EMO (N = 12) had smaller cerebellar volumes than a control group of 15 siblings (p = .02 control vs.

Acupuncture modulates spontaneous activities in the anticorrelated resting brain networks.

Neuroimaging studies of acupuncture have demonstrated extensive signal attenuations in the core regions of a "default mode" network as well as signal potentiations in the regions of a "central-executive" network. We proposed that this acupuncture-related dichotomy may represent the anticorrelation in these intrinsic brain networks showing spontaneous fluctuations during rest. According to a plentiful clinical report, acupuncture can provide pain relief beyond the time it is being administrated; therefore, imaging its sustained effect (rather than acute effect) on the brain networks may further help elucidate the mechanisms by which acupuncture achieves its therapeutic effects.

Detecting functional connectivity in fMRI using PCA and regression analysis.

A fMRI connectivity analysis approach combining principal component analysis (PCA) and regression analysis is proposed to detect functional connectivity between the brain regions. By first using PCA to identify clusters within the vectors of fMRI time series, more energy and information features in the signal can be maintained than using averaged values from brain regions of interest. Then, regression analysis can be applied to the extracted principal components in order to further investigate functional connectivity.

Impaired attention network in temporal lobe epilepsy: a resting FMRI study.

Attention deficit is a common symptom in the patient with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE). Although presumption has been proposed by the previous study that mTLE may have impaired attention networks, no fMRI study has addressed the alteration of the dorsal attention network in mTLE. Twenty-four patients with bilateral mTLE and the same number of gender- and age-matched healthy controls participated in the current fMRI study.

Time-varied characteristics of acupuncture effects in fMRI studies.

When studying the neural responses to acupuncture with a block-designed paradigm, its temporal dynamics predicted by the general linear model (GLM) conforms to typical "on-off" variations during a limited period of the experiment manipulation. Despite a lack of direct evidence associating its psychophysiological response, numerous clinical reports suggest that acupuncture can provide pain relief beyond a needling session. Therefore, a typical GLM analysis may be insensitive or inappropriate for identifying altered neural responses resulting from acupuncture.

Food addiction and cues in prader-willi syndrome.

Obesity research has recognized that there are many factors contributing to this devastating disorder. Much debate has arisen among scientists to develop models that might be useful in understanding why obesity has become a major health problem and epidemic. However, much of the current debate has been fractious and causes of obesity have been attributed solely to behavior or fast food, personality issues, depression, addiction, or genetics.

White matter impairments in autism, evidence from voxel-based morphometry and diffusion tensor imaging.

This study explored white matter abnormalities in a group of Chinese children with high functioning autism (HFA). Twelve male children with HFA and ten matched typically developing children underwent diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) as well three-dimensional T1-weighted MRI for voxel-based morphometry (VBM). We found a significant decrease of the white matter density in the right frontal lobe, left parietal lobe and right anterior cingulate and a significant increase in the right frontal lobe, left parietal lobe and left cingulate gyrus in the HFA group compared with the control group.

Shape memory effect of thermoplastic segmented polyurethanes with self-complementary quadruple hydrogen bonding in soft segments.

This paper describes the fact that a kind of thermoplastic shape memory polyurethane with self-complementary quadruple hydrogen bonding units in soft segments can present a significant shape memory effect under the usually used thermodynamic programming condition. Compared with the control sample, it was observed that the introduction of self-complementary quadruple hydrogen bonding into soft segments increases the glass transition temperature from 28.3 degrees C to 73.

Multiple neural networks supporting a semantic task: an fMRI study using independent component analysis.

A visual task for semantic access involves a number of brain regions. However, previous studies either examined the role of each region separately using univariate approach, or analyzed a single brain network using covariance connectivity analysis. We hypothesize that these brain regions construct several functional networks underpinning a word semantic access task, these networks being engaged in different cognitive components with distinct temporal characters.