Research Article Acupuncture Induces Time-Dependent Remodelling Brain Network on the Stable Somatosensory First-Ever Stroke Patients: Combining Diffusion Tensor and Functional MR Imaging

Copyright © 2014 Lijun Bai et al.This is an open access article distributed under the Creative CommonsAttribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Different treatment interventions induce distinct remodelling of network architecture of entire motor system. Acupuncture has been proved to be of a promising efficacy inmotor recovery. However, it is still unclear whether the reorganization of motor-related brain network underlying acupuncture is related with time since stroke and severity of deficit at baseline. The aim of study was to characterize the relation between motor-related brain organization following acupuncture and white matter microstructural changes at an interval of two weeks. We demonstrated that acupuncture induced differential reorganization of motor-related network for stroke patients as time-lapse since stroke. At the baseline, acupuncture can induce the increased functional connectivity between the left primary motor cortex (M1) and the right M1, premotor cortex, supplementary motor area (SMA), thalamus, and cerebellum. After two-week recovery, the increased functional connectivity of the leftM1wasmorewidely distributed and primarily located in the insula, cerebellum, basal ganglia, and SMA. Furthermore, a significant negative relation existed between the FA valu