摘要
Manualacupunctureiswidelyusedforpainreliefandstresscontrol.Previousstudiesonacupuncturehaveshownitsmodulatoryeffectsonthefunctionalconnectivityassociatedwithoneorafewpreselectedbrainregions.Toinvestigatehowmanualacupuncturemodulatestheorganizationoffunctionalnetworksatawhole-brainlevel,weacupunctureatST36ofarightlegtoobtainelectroencephalograph(EEG)signals.Bycoherenceestimation,wedeterminethesynchronizationsbetweenallpairwisecombinationsofEEGchannelsinthreeacupuncturestates.Theresultingsynchronizationmatricesareconvertedintofunctionalnetworksbyapplyingathreshold,andtheclusteringcoefficientsandpathlengthsarecomputedasafunctionofthreshold.Theresultsshowthatacupuncturecanincreasefunctionalconnectionsandsynchronizationsbetweendifferentbrainareas.Forawiderangeofthresholds,theclusteringcoefficientduringacupunctureandpostacupunctureperiodishigherthanthatduringthepre-acupuncturecontrolperiod,whereasthecharacteristicpathlengthisshorter.Weprovidefurthersupportforthepresenceof'small-world'networkcharacteristicsinfunctionalnetworksbyusingacupuncture.Thesepreliminaryresultshighlightthebeneficialmodulationsoffunctionalconnectivitybymanualacupuncture,whichcouldcontributetotheunderstandingoftheeffectsofacupunctureontheentirebrain,aswellastheneurophysiologicalmechanismsunderlyingacupuncture.Moreover,theproposedmethodmaybeausefulapproachtothefurtherinvestigationofthecomplexityofpatternsofinterrelationsbetweenEEGchannels.
出版日期
2013年02月12日（中国期刊网平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）
