Aging involves cognitive decline and prominent alterations in brain activity. Electroacupuncture (EA), a traditional Chinese medicine approach, is demonstrated to be effective in improving cognitive function of older adults. However, the specific neural mechanism underlying this modulation effect remains unclear. In this study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate whether EA could improve cognitive performance of community-dwelling older adults and whether these potential improvements are associated with the EA-induced brain functional connectivity alterations. Thirty healthy older adults were recruited and randomly assigned to the EA group and the control group. Behaviorally, we observed an EA-induced improvement in cognitive performance of older adults in the Montreal Cognitive Assessment. On a neural perspective, the EA intervention significantly increased the functional connectivity within the default mode network. Moreover, we found a positive association between the improvement in delayed memory performance and the alterations in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex-hippocampal formation connectivity in the EA group. This study extends previous findings by showing that healthy older adults exhibit neural plasticity manifested as increased functional connectivity after EA sessions, which could induce therapeutic effects in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.

中文翻译：

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电针调节健康老年人的默认模式网络中的静息状态功能连接性。

衰老涉及认知能力下降和大脑活动的明显改变。电针（EA）是一种传统的中药疗法，被证明可有效改善老年人的认知功能。但是，尚不清楚这种调节作用的具体神经机制。在这项研究中，我们使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）来研究EA是否可以改善居住在社区的老年人的认知能力，以及这些潜在的改善是否与EA引起的大脑功能连接改变有关。招募了30名健康的老年人，并将其随机分配到EA组和对照组。从行为上讲，我们在蒙特利尔认知评估中观察到了EA诱导的老年人认知能力的改善。从神经学的角度来看，EA干预大大提高了默认模式网络内的功能连接性。此外，我们发现EA组中延迟记忆性能的改善与腹内侧前额叶皮层-海马结构连接性的改变之间存在正相关。这项研究通过显示健康的老年人表现出神经可塑性，表现为在EA疗程后功能连接性增加，从而可以诱导神经退行性疾病的治疗，从而扩展了先前的发现。我们在EA组中发现延迟记忆性能的改善与腹内侧前额叶皮层-海马形成连接性的改变之间存在正相关关系。这项研究通过显示健康的老年人表现出神经可塑性，表现为在EA疗程后功能连接性增强，从而可以诱导神经退行性疾病的治疗，从而扩展了先前的发现。我们发现延迟记忆功能的改善与EA组腹内侧前额叶皮层-海马形成连接性的改变之间存在正相关。这项研究通过显示健康的老年人表现出神经可塑性，表现为在EA疗程后功能连接性增强，从而可以诱导神经退行性疾病的治疗，从而扩展了先前的发现。