Dataset Information

The cerebral mechanism underlying the acupoints with specific effect for gallbladder stone disease: protocol for a randomized controlled task-fMRI trial.

ABSTRACT:

Background

As it has been recorded in ancient Chinese classics, Yanglingquan (GB34) and Dannangxue (EX-LE6) are two important acupoints that can regulate the function of the gallbladder. Acupuncture at these two acupoints is considered particularly effective for gallbladder disease treatment, especially for alleviating gallbladder stone disease (GSD) symptoms that can be aggravated after intaking high-fat food. However, the superior effect between the two acupoints still needs to be further explored, as well as the underlying central mechanism has never been investigated to date.

Methods and design

Ninety participants diagnosed with GSD will be randomly divided into group A (acupuncture at GB34), group B (acupuncture at EX-LE6), and group C (acupuncture at non-acupoint) in a ratio of 1:1:1. All of them will receive a 30-min acupuncture treatment with fatty-food cues being presented before and after acupuncture. During the task, participants will be scanned by MRI and required to rate their desire for high-/low-fat food with an 11-point Likert scale. Additionally, the participants' pain/discomfort sensation will be evaluated using the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) at four timepoints, including before the 1st task fMRI scan, before and after acupuncture, and after the 2nd task fMRI scan. For both behavior and fMRI data, the ANOVA analysis will be conducted among three groups to testify the immediate effect of GB34 and EX-LE6. The post hoc t-test will be employed to further explore the superiority between acupuncture with GB34 and EX-LE6. Furthermore, correlation analyses will be conducted to investigate a possible correlation between neural changes and clinical data.

Discussion

In comparison to the non-acupoint, the results will firstly explore the superior effect between acupuncture with GB34 and EX-LE6 on GSD patients by observing their behavioral and neural response change to fatty-food cue, and then to investigate the underlying central mechanism.

Trial registration

Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ChiCTR2000034368 . Registered on 3 July 2020.

SUBMITTER: Sun N

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8204415 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundPrevious attempts to investigate the effects of semantic tasks on picture naming in both healthy controls and people with aphasia have typically been confounded by inclusion of the phonological word form of the target item. As a result, it is difficult to isolate any facilitatory effects of a semantically-focused task to either lexical-semantic or phonological processing. This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study examined the neurological mechanisms underlying short-term (within minutes) and long-term (within days) facilitation of naming from a semantic task that did not include the phonological word form, in both participants with aphasia and age-matched controls.ResultsBehavioral results showed that a semantic task that did not include the phonological word form can successfully facilitate subsequent picture naming in both healthy controls and individuals with aphasia. The whole brain neuroimaging results for control participants identified a repetition enhancement effect in the short-term, with modulation of activity found in regions that have not traditionally been associated with semantic processing, such as the right lingual gyrus (extending to the precuneus) and the left inferior occipital gyrus (extending to the fusiform gyrus). In contrast, the participants with aphasia showed significant differences in activation over both the short- and the long-term for facilitated items, predominantly within either left hemisphere regions linked to semantic processing or their right hemisphere homologues.ConclusionsFor control participants in this study, the short-lived facilitation effects of a prior semantic task that did not include the phonological word form were primarily driven by object priming and episodic memory mechanisms. However, facilitation effects appeared to engage a predominantly semantic network in participants with aphasia over both the short- and the long-term. The findings of the present study also suggest that right hemisphere involvement may be supportive rather than maladaptive, and that a large distributed perisylvian network in both cerebral hemispheres supports the facilitation of naming in individuals with aphasia.

Project description:BackgroundDisconnected consciousness describes a state in which subjective experience (i.e., consciousness) becomes isolated from the external world. It appears frequently during sleep or sedation, when subjective experiences remain vivid but are unaffected by external stimuli. Traditional methods of differentiating connected and disconnected consciousness, such as relying on behavioral responsiveness or on post-anesthesia reports, have demonstrated limited accuracy: unresponsiveness has been shown to not necessarily equate to unconsciousness and amnesic effects of anesthesia and sleep can impair explicit recollection of events occurred during sleep/sedation. Due to these methodological challenges, our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying sensory disconnection remains limited.MethodsTo overcome these methodological challenges, we employ a distinctive strategy by combining a serial awakening paradigm with auditory stimulation during mild propofol sedation. While under sedation, participants are systematically exposed to auditory stimuli and questioned about their subjective experience (to assess consciousness) and their awareness of the sounds (to evaluate connectedness/disconnectedness from the environment). The data collected through interviews are used to categorize participants into connected and disconnected consciousness states. This method circumvents the requirement for responsiveness in assessing consciousness and mitigates amnesic effects of anesthesia as participants are questioned while still under sedation. Functional MRI data are concurrently collected to investigate cerebral activity patterns during connected and disconnected states, to elucidate sensory disconnection neural gating mechanisms. We examine whether this gating mechanism resides at the thalamic level or results from disruptions in information propagation to higher cortices. Furthermore, we explore the potential role of slow-wave activity (SWA) in inducing disconnected consciousness by quantifying high-frequency BOLD oscillations, a known correlate of slow-wave activity.DiscussionThis study represents a notable advancement in the investigation of sensory disconnection. The serial awakening paradigm effectively mitigates amnesic effects by collecting reports immediately after regaining responsiveness, while still under sedation. Ultimately, this research holds the potential to understand how sensory gating is achieved at the neural level. These biomarkers might be relevant for the development of sensitive anesthesia monitoring to avoid intraoperative connected consciousness and for the assessment of patients suffering from pathologically reduced consciousness.Clinical trial registrationEuropean Union Drug Regulating Authorities Clinical Trials Database (EudraCT), identifier 2020-003524-17.